by Leslie Maitland. (Find the Book)Former New York Times reporter Maitland grew up listening to her mother Janine's romantic tales of her first love. Janine fell in love with Roland, a French Catholic, and they planned to marry when the impending Nazi invasion of France in 1942 forced Janine's German Jewish family to flee. Janine journeyed with her family from Marseilles to Casablanca to a Cuban detention camp before they finally reached New York. The war and family secrets prevented Janine from reuniting with her fiance. Janine eventually married Maitland's father and settled into a sometimes acrimonious family life, and she never forgot Roland. Maitland, haunted by her mother's romantic story of first love, set out to find out what happened to Roland and to trace her family's long history in Germany and perilous flight to avoid Nazi persecution. This is a fascinating story of thwarted love, longing, and the travails of one woman and one family within the broader context of war and persecution. Maitland includes a treasury of old family photographs and documents to enhance this incredible story of the gauzy intersection of memory and fact. --Booklist
