In a Berlin of rubble and frost, two sixteen-year-old girls are struggling to believe in a future. Lotte and Estera cross paths in a displaced persons camp for Holocaust survivors, where Estera, a Polish-Jewish orphan, has found refuge, and Lotte, a German girl, works cleaning. Lotte grew up with the lies of the Nazis; she lived through the bombing of Berlin; her father is a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union. Estera’s father was murdered by the Nazis; her mother succumbed to tuberculosis during their flight through Europe; her younger sister is missing.
Lotte and Estera could not be more different—yet both are united by their hope for a better future. But can two girls from opposite sides of history truly find friendship in the wreckage of war? Holly-Jane Rahlens portrays their journey towards friendship with a rare lightness of touch, authenticity, restraint and engaging dialogue.
A great classroom and book club read.
The original English-language manuscript is available upon request!
