Memory is deceptive when it comes to recalling the events and places of our childhood; it tells us a story of our past, idealised and distorted by the passage of time. Loss is the most powerful of these emotional lenses, endowing the places we can never return to with a magic that mag- nifies the good and softens the ugly.
The author sets out to discover her grandmother Inge's past and, along the way, learns of long-held secrets. Inge, born in East Prussia, was forced to flee the end of WWII. Along with her daughter and parents, she made her way to Denmark which showed little compassion too German refugees once the war ended only to find herself in Germany where life was significantly harder. Stories like hers were largely ignored because who, really, has ever been inclined to care about the travails of German civilians then? (Non- fiction)