Short Synopsis
In this true-life thriller, Kati Marton draws on her skill as an investigative reporter to discover who her journalist parents really were—and how they survived the Nazis in Budapest and imprisonment by the Soviets during the Cold War.

Full Synopsis
Award-winning journalist Kati Marton set out on a wrenching personal journey to uncover the truth about her parents during her childhood in Cold War Budapest. She exposes the cruel mechanics of the communist state using the secret police files on her parents as well as dozens of interviews that reveal how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends, colleagues, and even their children's babysitter. She learned details of her parents' love affairs and the full nightmare of her parents' incarceration in a communist prison. Marton relates her own eyewitness account of her mother's and father's arrests and the terrible separation that followed. There were things she didn't want to know about and disappointments she didn't want to revisit. But as she dug deeper into their lives, she found the truth about her parents' lives—and her own.

"Powerful and unsparing.... I will never forget this book and neither will you." ---Sean Wilentz, author of the Bancroft Prize winner The Rise of American Democracy

"Marton's story...is one of bravery, suffering, survival and vindication. She tells it in straightforward, lucid prose...and with her emotions well under control." ---The Washington Post

"A powerful and absolutely absorbing narrative." ---The New York Times

"A true story that is deeply moving and altogether amazing. It is a mystery story, a love story, and a walk through history." ---Barbara Walters

Chicago Tribune Favorite Nonfiction of 2009

National Book Critics Circle Finalist