At the end of World War II, eighteen-year-old Klara Werner finds herself emancipated from the German concentration camp that has kept her prisoner for so long.
Traumatized by the abuse she has experienced, and seemingly abandoned by the American soldier who professed his love for her, she is unsure where to turn next-until she remembers her mother's final words: "Survive at all costs."
So Klara decides to reinvent herself, leaving her Jewish identity behind and marrying the US Army doctor who treated her. Together, they begin a new life in Atlanta, Georgia, where she can enjoy freedoms she has never had before.
But in an era of Jim Crow rules and regulations eerily similar to the Nuremberg laws that victimized her family for so long, Klara begins to find she has more in common with her husband's Negro help than with his country club friends.
Burdened by the guilt of her carefully orchestrated charade, Klara seeks solace in becoming an outspoken advocate for the growing civil rights movement. But in the end only a face-to-face confrontation with a past she has fought so hard to forget will release her from the lies that bind her.
About the Author: Sandy Berman has worked as a museum archivist and curator for thirty years, compiling numerous national and international exhibits. She has interviewed countless Holocaust survivors about their experiences prior to, during, and after World War II-as well as hundreds of Jewish southerners who became part of the growth and development of their communities in the Deep South.
Her debut novel, Klara with a K, is inspired by her experience as the co-curator of the exhibit Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, 1933-1945, as well as her work as a historian specializing in Jewish life in the South.
Sandy currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, in close proximity to her children and grandchildren.
