Books like They Went Left by Monica Hesse

When the soldiers who liberated Gross‑Rosen say the war is over, Zofia Lederman still feels the weight of her trauma and the absence of her younger brother, Abek, who survived the gas chambers of Auschwitz‑Birkenau. Zofia’s last promise to her brother—"A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet"—drives her across Poland and Germany toward a displaced‑persons camp where survivors like Miriam, Breine, and Josef are piecing together new futures from the wreckage of war. She confronts the painful memories of medical experiments, lost family members, and the searchlights of a continent rebuilding itself. In this intimate journey, Zofia faces the impossible task of locating one boy in a sea of missing persons, while the mystery that unfolds may either shatter what remains or help her forge a new world.

First publish date: 2020