The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Exiles
conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story
with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the
Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports
that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied
Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to
safety.
In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish
bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a
wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding
playwright whose playground extends from Vienna’s streets
to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan’s best
friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a
Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-
Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents’ carefree
innocence is shattered when the Nazis’ take control.
There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller,
a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life
smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the
nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes
even more dangerous after the Anschluss—Hitler’s
annexation of Austria—as, across Europe, countries close
their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate
to escape.
Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as
many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure
to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich,
she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would
later help devise the “Final Solution to the Jewish
Question,” in a race against time to bring children like
Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a
perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.
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