Publisher's Synopsis
In the attic of the house she has inherited from her grandparents, Bea finds a sealed envelope. It contains a manuscript written by a woman who, along with Bea's mother and thousands of other German women, was captured by the Russians in February 1945 and deported to a labour camp in Siberia. Bea starts to read it and at last, fifty years later, comes to know the circumstances leading up to her mother's death. Bea doubts whether anyone nowadays wants to be told about what happened at the end of the Second World War to a few deported German women. Her life has been changed by her discovery but she cannot bring herself to talk to anyone about it. Then she meets Jacob Stern, a Berlin Jew who was the only member of his family to survive the war. Bea and Jacob's is a love story, though neither can find the language to break the silence and talk about the fate of their parents. Only during a trip to Russia do they at last find the words. Based on a true account of a German woman who was deported in 1945 to Siberia, and on letters written by members of Eva Zeller's own family, this is an extraordinary, moving story about love and trust.
