The award-winning novel by Czech author Kateřina Tučková--her first to
be translated into English--about the fate of one woman and the pursuit
of forgiveness in a divided postwar world.
1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta
Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with
Hitler, it's not deliverance; it's a sentence. She has been branded an
enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered
her family--and her innocence--Gerta must obey the official order: she,
along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia.
With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, she's
herded among thousands, driven from the only home she's ever known. But
the injustice only makes Gerta stronger, more empowered, and more
resolved to seek justice. Her journey is a relentless quest for a
seemingly impossible forgiveness. And one day, she will return.
Spanning decades and generations, Kateřina Tučková's breathtaking novel
illuminates a long-neglected episode in Czech history. One of exclusion
and prejudice, of collective shame versus personal guilt, all through
the eyes of a charismatic woman whose courage will affect all the lives
she's touched. Especially that of the daughter she loved, fought for,
shielded, and would come to inspire.
