The scene where the Jews of Corfu are imprisoned on Lefkada is rooted in fact. Many of the Corfiot Jews did indeed pass through Lefkada on their deportation to Auschwitz, and many of the townspeople of Lefkada, putting their own lives at risk, bravely tried to help the Corfiot Jews. Pope Dimitris Thomatzidis attempted to give a cigarette across the fence to a Jew named Daniel Johanna, for which the pope was injured by a Nazi soldier. Daniel, the Jew who accepted the cigarette, was then murdered by a Nazi soldier. And subsequently, a Nazi soldier also injured (and possibly even murdered, according to differing sources) two or three more Jews standing nearby. All of these events are depicted as accurately as possible in the backdrop of the scene in which Sarah sees her family for the very last time.

Before the war, there were about two thousand Jews of Corfu. During the Nazi rule, two hundred Corfiot Jews managed to escape and/or find refuge with Christian families. On June 14, 1944, the other eighteen hundred Corfiot Jews were deported to Auschwitz, where all but about a hundred perished.

It has been an honor to pay tribute to the Jews of Corfu, whose stories have thus far been little told.

Acknowledgments

I am brimming with gratitude for the many people with their imprints on this book.

My heartfelt thanks to my amazing agent, Rachel Ekstrom Courage, for how much you believe in me and my writing and for finding this novel its perfect home. I absolutely love working together. And thank you to Maggie Auffarth at Folio, for your always insightful edits.

I am enormously grateful to the wonderful people at Grand Central. To my editor, Alex Logan, my deepest thanks for your extraordinary vision of what this book could be and for helping me to make it shine. It is a pinch-me feeling at having landed in your capable hands. And a special thanks to the talented art department, who gave me such a stunningly beautiful cover.

Thank you to Linda Sivertsen, for your mentorship, friendship, and the transformative cocoon of your magical Carmel writing retreats. Thank you to my critique partner, Nicole Hackett, for your always spot-on critiques and for sharing the ups and downs of this writing life. Thank you to Laura Yorke and Alisia Leavitt, for your astute early feedback. And thanks to Zo Flamenbaum, my writing partner-in-shine, for your creative inspiration, always. There are so many other people who have been instrumental to my writing life, but I especially want to thank Natalie Blenford, Alison Hammer, Alexandra Rochman, and Ellen Neuborne. And of course, Jaclyn Mishal and your fabulous Pink Pangea writing retreats. Thank you for being such wonderful friends and for providing me with a vibrant writing community. And thank you to the Women’s Fiction Writing Association for invaluable resources and fellowship.