She grew up the youngest of three children in a middle class Jewish family, just like many others. But since the Nazi occupation of Budapest, Hungary, seventeen-year-old Eva Szabo's world has been turned upside down.
Now her best friend has left for Switzerland, her brother Paul is making waves in the resistance movement, and her older sister is forced to abandon a promising musical career. In the face of all this upheaval, Eva feels she has no outlet to express her true emotions-which, as local bombings intensify, are growing more tumultuous by the day.
Determined to protect his younger sister from the ravages of war, Paul secures a job for Eva in the rural countryside, caring for the children of his friend Zoltan. As she leaves behind the only home she has ever known, Eva faces new challenges and finds new purpose in her life-as she discovers important lessons about love, empathy, and understanding.
Based on actual events, this semi-autobiographical work of fiction paints a compelling picture of the life-altering choices and moral dilemmas faced by those at war.
About the Author: Edith Kapka was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1913. After undergoing training in child care and development in Belgium, she married John Kapka in 1939. Then, in 1947, the couple emigrated to the United States with their six children.
She began writing down her wartime memories in 1982, after her husband's death, and continued after her move to Salem, Oregon, in 1991, despite gradual vision loss caused by glaucoma.
Marga Kapka is a longtime educator who earned her master's in English from Western Washington University, and her teaching certificate from Indiana University. For the past twenty-three years, she has taught English composition and literature, as well as English as a foreign language, in Washington state and abroad. She currently resides in Port Townsend, Washington, with her husband.
