Grace in the Wilderness

NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

Fourteen-year-old Piri is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz–Birkenau. After six months of being in the camp, she and her sister are liberated and rescued by the Swedish Red Cross. Soon after, she travels with her sister, Iboya, to Sweden where she is adopted by a Jewish-Swedish family. Soon she falls in love with David, giving herself a hard decision. Who will she choose? The love of her life, or Iboya, the sister who guided her through life? Piri contends with growing up, making decisions for the future, the loss of her family, and the memories of being in the camp. At the age of eighteen, Piri leaves her adoptive family to sail to the United States with her sister. Once in New York City, Piri and Iboya are reunited with some of the members of their family where they begin life anew.