"One of the best books of 2011"ÉA nerve-wracking saga in which life and death depend on a capricious fateÉabsorbing lucidityÉvivid portraitsÉsimple moral vision that resonates: "I became immunized against prejudiceÓ. A testament of remarkable clarity and humanity, wrung from dark experience.Ñ KIRKUS REVIEWS.
***Surviving the Holocaust by a hair, Anders became a brilliant scientist. Part I is a memoir of his youth, including the Soviet and German occupations of Latvia. Part II discusses, with objectivity and precision, Latvian conduct during WWII. ÑANDREW EZERGAILIS, Professor of History, Ithaca, NY.
***Anders survived by an outright lie (invented by his father) that his mother was a German foundling raised by a Jewish couple. His father was soon executed, but Edward and his mother bluffed their way through the nightmarish years of the German occupation (1941-1945). ÑMORRIS HALLE, Institute Professor of Linguistics, MIT, Cambridge, MA.