A beautiful and meandering work of investigative journalism to uncover what happened to the woman left behind when the author's grandfather fled Vienna in 1938. As Sarah Wildman slowly unearths what happened to Valy, she also brings a portrait of Valy herself--vivacious and warm, smart and determined--so that as Valy's world shrinks smaller and smaller and she becomes increasingly desperate to leave the Reich at any cost, Valy becomes clearer and more vibrant to the readers.

We begin to understand that at the heart of any humanitarian crisis are ordinary people and that every story is worth telling. A timely and wonderfully written book that left me me reeling, it was a galvanizing and powerful work of historical journalism.