Honest Deceptions

Raised in the United States, newly minted physician Margot Brenner cannot explain the draw that her birth country, Germany, holds for her. She moves there, gets an internship, and tries to piece together the story of her family, destroyed in the Holocaust. Margot's late mother only told her fragments about her father and older brother. Margot meets Dr. Willie Meinhof, her father's closest friend, who is strangely reluctant to help Margot, and he discourages a friendship between her and his son, Willy. But Margot entrances Willy and the two become close. Flash back to 1939, and readers learn more. Both families had young boys. Only baby Margot and her mother were able to exit the country before the Nazis shut things down. Other old-timers share information with Margot until she finally learns more than she'd bargained for. The unfolding storylines, alternating between 1939 and 1963, exude tragic foreboding.