Tuvja Bruk was my grandfather and Vera was my grandmother. Rafael, Rafi, R. was my father, we already know that. And Nina... But Nina is not in the picture. This is such a family," Gili writes in her notebook. However, on Vera's ninetieth birthday, Nina returns to the kibbutz, where her mother welcomes her with euphoric joy, her daughter Gili with anger, and Rafi with unceasing admiration. This time, it seems, Nina does not want to run away: she urgently needs to know , what happened in the first years of her life. She wants her mother to tell her what happened when, as a young Croatian Jewish girl, she fell in love with Milos, the son of landless Serbian peasants. And what happened when Milos was imprisoned by the Stalinists on charges of espionage. Know he wants to know why Vera was deported to the island of Goli Otok and why he left her when she was six and a half years old. Vera, Nina, Gili and Rafi set off in search of answers. The cathartic journey to Goli Otok transforms all of their lives with overwhelming force. David Grossman reveals to the reader the nature of transgenerational traumas, the intertwining of history and individual destiny, the irrevocability of decisions and the power of forgiveness - without moral judgment l, authentically.