Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind

Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind

One womanâ‚¬s journey to find the lost love her grandfather left behind when he fled pre-World War II Europe, and an exploration into family identity, myth, and memory.

Years after her grandfatherâ‚¬s death, journalist Sarah Wildman stumbled upon a cache of his letters in a file labeled â‚¬Å“Correspondence: Patients Aâ‚¬â€œG.â‚¬Â What she found inside werenâ‚¬t dry medical histories; instead what was written opened a path into the destroyed world that was her familyâ‚¬s prewar Vienna. One womanâ‚¬s letters stood out: those from Valyâ‚¬"Valerie Scheftel.Â Â Her grandfatherâ‚¬s lover who had remained behind when he fled Europe six months after the Nazis annexed Austria.

Valyâ‚¬s name wasnâ‚¬t unknown to herâ‚¬"Wildman had once asked her grandmother about a dark-haired young woman whose images she found in an old photo album. â‚¬Å“She wasÂ your grandfatherâ‚¬s true love,â‚¬Â her grandmother said at the time, and refused any other questions. But now, with the help of the letters, Wildman started to piece together Valyâ‚¬s story. They revealed a woman desperate to escape andÂ clinging to the memory of a love that defined her years of freedom.

Obsessed with Valyâ‚¬s story, Wildman began a quest that lasted years and spanned continents. She discovered, to her shock, an entireÂ world of other people searching for the same woman. On in the course ofÂ discoveringÂ Valyâ‚¬s ultimate fate, she was forced to reexamine the story of her grandfatherâ‚¬s triumphant escape and how this history fit within her own life and in the process, she rescues a life seemingly lost to history.
Country USA
Brand Riverhead Books
Manufacturer Riverhead Books
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber black & white halftones
ReleaseDate 2014-10-30
EANs 9781594631559

Country	USA
Brand	Riverhead Books
Manufacturer	Riverhead Books
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	black & white halftones
ReleaseDate	2014-10-30
EANs	9781594631559

Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind

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