At the back of the book the author tells us that it took years to write this story and that should come as no surprise to anyone who reads it. The level of detail and understanding of the history supporting three different generations of a family is remarkable, and you read it as if you were a ghost hovering on their shoulders. Sometimes the story drew me in so much that I almost wanted to find a way to communicate with the characters to warn them as something bad approached. As the reader, we know some of the outcomes for the characters, because the story of the three generations is woven together, and we have 'seen' photographs and letters as they have been seen by later members of the family. Huge topics such as racism and unethical trading with the Nazi Party in Germany are covered in the telling of the story, and the author keeps the narrative true to each era that is covered. The open racism against Jewish and black people in the earlier years of the twent...