Reviewed by Emma Crowley
1945. Hedi Fischer is jostled off the train and through the gates of a Nazi concentration camp. As the prisoners are pushed inside, she frantically searches for a familiar face – anybody to make her feel less alone here. At the constant mercy of the cruel and unpredictable guards, Hedi knows it is only luck and her wits that will keep her alive now. That is, until her eyes meet the gentle gaze of a blue-eyed British soldier, and everything changes in a moment…
Present Day. Thea has never met her grandmother Hedi, so she’s surprised when she receives a call to take her home. She’s not sure how the elegant ninety-year-old woman will fit into her life – especially as she’s just rashly quit her job in the city to rent a tiny, stone cottage miles from the nearest town. Sharp, feisty Hedi refuses to talk about how she ended up here, or why she and Thea’s mother haven’t spoken for more than thirty years. So when Thea spots Hedi’s battered suitcase on their scrubbed wood kitchen table, she can’t resist the chance to learn more.
What Thea finds inside is more heartbreaking than she could have ever imagined. Hedi’s memories, so long kept hidden from the world, could be the key to finally putting three generations of family secrets to rest…
