The House in Prague

1939: The Nazis have invaded Prague. Seven-year-old Anna Baecher huddles with her doll in the corner of a train car, trying to disappear while a German officer shrieks, "You are Jews!" at her Jewish father and Catholic mother. Fleeing for their lives, her family has abandoned their elegant house near Prague Castle, bringing their life of privilege to an abrupt halt. In this memoir that reads like a novel, we meet Anna's shining and beautiful opera singer mother, her prominent lawyer father, and their circle of friends that includes Albert Schweitzer and the family of Czech President Thomas Masaryk. Through Anna's eyes, we relive the family's escape from the Nazis, their voyage to Ellis Island, and her struggle to become an American girl in a city teeming with immigrants and prejudice. Post-war life brings cherished Holocaust survivors and their harrowing stories, the successes and failures of her immigrant family, and life with her poet-husband and their children.After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the Baecher family learns that it can sue for the return of their family home. But will they prevail? And if they do, what then? This is the true story of a cherished house, the family it sheltered, and the meaning of home.