The Last Train to London

The pre-World War II tale, centered on the Kindertransports that transported thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one courageous woman who assisted them in escaping to safety—is the subject of the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Exiles, who crafts her best book to date.

For fifteen-year-old Stephan Neuman, the son of a powerful Jewish family and aspiring playwright whose playground stretches from Vienna's streets to its complex network of underground tunnels, the Nazis are little more than loud, rude bores in 1936. The intelligent Christian girl ſofie-Helene, whose mother writes a progressive, anti-Nazi journal, is Stephan's closest friend and companion. However, when the Nazis seize power, the carefree innocence of the two teenagers is destroyed.

But even in the dark, there is hope. Dutch resistance fighter Truus Wijsmuller puts her life in danger to transport Jewish children from Nazi Germany to other countries that will take them. After Hitler's takeover of Austria, known as the Anschluss, countries around Europe began to seal their borders to the increasing number of desperate refugees, making the operation extremely riskier.

As she is known, Tante Truus, is committed to saving as many kids as she can. In a race against time to send children like Stephan, his younger brother Walter, and ſofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," after Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich.