This Haunting Novel of memory, guilt, and cultural identity revolves around Andreas, a poet, who lives with his wealthy bride, Susanne, in postwar Germany. But although surrounded by the trappings of success, Andreas is haunted by the memory of Susanne's younger brother, Daniel, whom he had sheltered in Amsterdam, but who was eventually killed by the Gestapo. The war over, Andreas rebuilds his life in the "new" Germany, trying to recapture Daniel through marriage to his sister. But he is unable to forget Daniel, and must return to Holland to confront his memories of the past. This is a "riveting, extraordinary, valuable, unusual" (Kirkus) book by one of Germany's most respected modern novelists. A Verba Mundi original.

Grete Weil was born in Munich in 1906, the daughter of a Jewish lawyer. When the Nazis came to power, she emigrated to Holland with her husband, the playwright and director Erich Weil. In 1941, Erich was arrested; he later died in a concentration camp. Grete went into hiding, and it was then that she began to write, first theater pieces, then fiction. After the war, she returned to Germany, and eventually settled near her native Munich, where she lived from 1947 until her death, at age 93, in 1996. She was the author of five novels, a memoir, and several collections of short fiction.