Forty Autumns / Nina Willner / 355 pages

This is a true story about the author's family.  The author's mother, Hanna, was born in Germany a few years before World War II.  There are eight children in the family and Hanna is the second oldest.  After the war ends Germany is split into East and West Germany.  Hanna and her family are living in what becomes East Germany.  The author tells the story of how Hanna escapes and how the family survives in East Germany.  I had little knowledge of East Germany, but this book does an excellent job of telling what life was like living in East Germany.  It is an amazing and interesting book that held me captive to the very end.  I even cried at some parts!  It will make you appreciate the freedoms we have in our country.