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The story of a young American pilot and a destitute but spirited young mother who, in 1948, takes the courageous decision to rescue her sister's small daughter out of Berlin on the very day the Russians blockade the city.
The hauntingly beautiful manuscript of a novel, written by the daughter of his father's mistress and reconstructed from a childhood memory, becomes the catalyst of change for a man who cannot forgive his father's infidelity. The manuscript tells the story of a young American pilot and a destitute but spirited young mother who, in 1948, won't take no for an answer when she decides to whisk her sister's small daughter out of Berlin on the very day the Russians blockade the city.
This book is dedicated, among others, to the Good American, wherever he is now. One can't write such a book, however, without also dedicating it to all the women who, after some insanity--whenever and wherever--manage, somehow, and unflinchingly, to pick up the pieces and to go on.
Chapter 1
Politics: A Fragment
On a summer day in 1948, Ruth Karstens, a young widow, and Pauli, her five-year-old niece, made their way gingerly down a densely forested mountain somewhere in eastern Germany. Both were hot, muddy, and exhausted. Pauli, holding on to Ruth's hand, lagged behind more and more, and so it looked as if Ruth were dragging the child down the mountain. A fresh breeze that had stayed behind after a thunderstorm parted the leaves of the trees now and then and gave Ruth a view over the vast, green pastures and barren fields toward where she was headed: a round village at the far horizon out of which stuck a church steeple. In the haze of that humid summer day, the hamlet ...
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