Book excerpt: August, 1940. England is at war. In the quiet university town of Oxford a young father fears an imminent German invasion. An opportunity suddenly arrives to send his wife and twin children to safety in America. He believes he must take it. In only a few days they are gone, traveling by ship in convoy through dangerous waters, evacuees. He cannot go with them. He has been assured they will return in a few months. The mother and the children begin their desperate American wartime odyssey, years filled with uncertainty, constant change, virtual homelessness. This is the story of those years, the courage and resilience of the mother, the inevitable unraveling of a marriage, and a father who is present only in his letters. His daughter searches the past to answer her questions. Why did he send us? Did we have to go? What happened between her father and her mother? What was her father like? This is a deeply personal and compelling story, beautifully told.