Author(s): Melanie Levensohn

Historical Fiction

Paris, 1940: The City of Lights under German occupation. Christian, son of a bank director, falls in love with Jewish girl Judith. The young couple secretly plan to flee, but suddenly Judith disappears. Christian begins a frantic search. Montreal, 1982: Shortly before his death, Lica Grunberg confesses to his daughter, Jacobina, that she has an older half-sister, Judith. Lica escaped the Nazis but lost all contact with his first-born daughter. Jacobina must promise her father to find the sister she never knew. But the search languishes for twenty-five years, until Jacobina is spurred on by her much-younger friend Béatrice, a French diplomat experiencing a painful midlife crisis. At the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., they meet Grégoire. Not only does he make Béatrice's head turn, he also finds clues to Judith's whereabouts. Soon the two women discover a dark family secret, stretching over two continents and six decades. It will change their lives forever.