The Roots Beneath

Western Germany, 1948: Her son's name is all Liese has left: Johannes. That, and the memory of his blue eyes — inherited from his father, a French occupation soldier and the love of her life. They had dreamed of a future together in Paris, until he was suddenly redeployed and vanished from her life. When Johannes turns two, the French government classifies him as a »French« citizen and seizes him, as part of a clandestine, large-scale child relocation program intended to replenish France's depleted population. Johannes is put up for adoption in France under a new name, and Liese never hears from him again.

Napa Valley, California, 2026: Johannes — who grew up as André in Burgundy — has built a new life for himself in the United States as a winemaker. But the painful and early separation from his mother has shadowed him his entire life. Shortly before his eightieth birthday, he asks his granddaughter, Maya, to search for traces of his mother in Germany. Maya immerses herself in André's past — and soon discovers that her own happiness hangs in the balance.

A woman whose child is taken from her. A son haunted by that loss his entire life. The fate of a family torn apart, from the turmoil of postwar Germany to contemporary California.

 

»Melanie Levensohn has written a touching and engaging novel about children of German mothers and French soldiers after the war – a story about shame, loss of heritage, and unspeakable pain.« Elisabeth Sandmann