In 1939 Sweden, two Jewish sisters wait for their parents to join them in fleeing the Nazis in Austria, but while eight-year-old Nellie settles in quickly, twelve-year-old Stephie feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who is as cold and unforgiving as the island on which they live.

Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among boxes in her late mother's attic. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig into her family's past to finally uncover the reasons why.Her inquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher who had been among her mother's circle of friends during the Second World War, but her questions there are met with bizarre and evasive replies. Two days later the man is brutally...

A "memoir by a journalist about his father's attempt to survive the aftermath of Auschwitz in a small industrial town in Sweden"--Dust jacket.

"In the years leading up to World War II, two families who seemingly could't be more different find that they have more in common than they could have imagined. Simon is a bookish dreamer from a working-class family in rural Sweden; Isak is the son of wealthy Jewish immigrants fleeing religious persecution in Berlin. While Simon yearns for the music, literature and art that are part of Isak's daily life, Isak finds comfort and security in Simon's...