As in her collection A Scrap of Time ( LJ 8/87), winner of the first Anne Frank Prize for Literature, Fink tells the story of Holocaust survivors, portraying the lives of ordinary people as they are forced to confront the unimaginable. In 1942, two Jewish sisters flee the Polish ghetto disguised as peasants. They risk their lives on a journey into enemy territory to look for work in the factories, farms, and villages of wartime Germany, in increasing danger as the Gestapo's cruel search for Jews with false papers intensifies. The author offers extraordinary insights into the lives of people in hiding: how they distinguish friends from enemies, maintain their identities, and survive in a world gone mad. Despite her grim subject matter, she champions human loyalty and remains sensitive to the beauty of the landscape. This beautifully written novel masterfully achieves a tenuous balance between power and restraint.--Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
