National Network for Equitable Library Service

A family’s story of the Holocaust lies buried in the soil of a graveyard in Prague, in the old neighborhoods of Montréal, in the serenity of a small New Jersey town, and in the memory of Jana – a woman finally asked to bear witness. Far from the landscapes of her earlier life, Jana raised her daughter, Willow, on the beautiful scrapbooks she kept of her own childhood in Prague before World War II. But her stories end with the beginning of the Holocaust, and Willow knows little of her mother’s life during the war and its immediate aftermath. Jana’s memories of this time are so guarded that Willow is uncertain who her father is – the answer left behind in Montréal, the city where Jana first settled after the war. When both Willow and Jana find themselves back in Montréal, the past can no longer be hidden. New loves are found and lost loves rekindled, and mother and daughter decide to journey to Prague to unearth the stories that can no longer stay buried.