They Went Left

Monica Hesse's "They Went Left" is a powerful and deeply moving historical mystery set in the immediate aftermath of World War II. It follows 18-year-old Zofia Lederman, a survivor of Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz-Birkenau, as she embarks on a seemingly impossible quest to find her younger brother, Abek, the only other member of her family to have survived the initial selection. The narrative weaves Zofia's harrowing memories with her determined search through displaced persons camps across Poland and Germany, introducing readers to a cast of other survivors each grappling with their own losses and hopes. This book is suitable for young adult readers aged 12-18, offering a sensitive yet unflinching look at the trauma of the Holocaust, the resilience of the human spirit, and the enduring bonds of family. Parents should be prepared for discussions around grief, loss, historical atrocities, and the psychological impact of war, all handled with nuance and a strong thread of hope.

A tour de force historical mystery from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat. Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left. Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once. But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her--or help her rebuild her world.