mattresses
a faraway island
torn from their homeland two jewish sisters find refuge in sweden . br its the summer of 1939 . two jewish sisters from vienna 12 year old stephie steiner and 8 year old nellie are sent to sweden to escape the nazis . they expect to stay there six months until their parents can flee to amsterdam ; then all four will go to america . but as the world war intensifies the girls remain each with her own host family on a rugged island off the western coast of sweden . br nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings . shes happy with her foster family and soon favors the swedish language over her native german . not so for stephie who finds it hard to adapt ; she feels stranded at the end of the world with a foster mother whos as cold and unforgiving as the island itself . her main worry though is her parents and whether she will ever see them again . p from the hardcover edition .
in 1939 sweden two jewish sisters wait for their parents to flee the nazis in austria but while eight year old nellie settles in quickly twelve year old stephie feels stranded with a foster mother who is cold and unforgiving .