Small Publisher of the Year 2011, 2010, 2008, 2006 

‘A mesmerizing memoir of one family’s shattering experience during World War II. It’s a tale at once heartbreaking and uplifting.’

Linda Fairstein, New York Times best-selling author of Silent Mercy

France, 1941. Janine, a Jewish teenager, and Roland, her Catholic boyfriend, are passionately in love, and believe that nothing can come between them. But World War II intervenes, and Janine is forced to flee the Nazis with her family. They set sail from the docks of Marseille on one of the last ships to take Jews to safety. For 50 years, the last memory she has of Roland is an image of him in a rowboat on the sea, desperately trying to catch a last glimpse of her as the ship speeds towards the horizon.

Janine and her family become refugees in Cuba and, later, settle in the United States. Their new world is unpredictable, but the family is bound together by love and their memories of happier years in Europe. Janine marries and has a family of her own, but never forgets her love for Roland.

Decades later, Janine’s daughter, journalist Leslie Maitland, decides to track down the lost love who has haunted her mother for so many years. What happens when she finds Roland changes all of their lives irrevocably, and proves that even the worst violence of the 20th century is not enough to extinguish hope, passion, and romance.

Crossing the Borders of Time is at once an expansive history, a deeply personal family memoir, and a brilliant work of investigative journalism by an award-winning former New York Times reporter. Yet, above all else, it is a unique love story that will move you from the first page to its touching conclusion.

Reviews

‘A poignantly rendered, impeccably researched tale of a rupture healed by time.’

Kirkus Reviews

‘One of those sweeping, epic, romantic novels that seems tailor-made for the Oscars and a long summer afternoon. Except it’s real! Leslie Maitland has the rare ability to bring history, adventure, and love alive.’

Bruce Feiler, New York Times best-selling author of Walking the Bible and Abraham

‘How the small flame of an undying love can illuminate the darkness of a tragic era. This elegantly told story is for everyone.’

James Carroll, New York Times best-selling author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Constantine’s Sword
» All reviews for this title

Other Holocaust History:

Emancipation

Emancipation: how liberating Europe's Jews from the ghetto led to revolution and renaissance

Michael Goldfarb

ISBN: 9781921372780
RRP: $39.95
Pub date: December 2009
Category: Holocaust History

Other Biography and Autobiography:

Watergate

Watergate: the hidden history: Nixon, the Mafia, and the CIA

Lamar Waldron

ISBN: 9781921844843
RRP: $45.00
Pub date: June 2012
Category: History/Politics
In the Garden of Beasts

In the Garden of Beasts: love, terror, and an American family in Hitler’s Berlin

Erik Larson

ISBN: 9781921844799
RRP: $24.95
Pub date: May 2012
Category: History
Modigliani

Modigliani: a life

Meryle Secrest

ISBN: 9781921844393
RRP: $45.00
Pub date: December 2011
Category: Biography and Autobiography
Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott: a man’s man

Susan Mitchell

ISBN: 9781921844300
RRP: $29.95
Pub date: October 2011
Category: Australian Politics