Meg Waite Clayton

returns to launch The Last Train to London, a beautifully rendered novel centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe--and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

"Painful and beautiful, absorbing and unforgettable. A wonderful tribute to courage, to a remarkable woman, to the ones she saved, and the ones she could not. Recommend this book to anyone who thinks no single person can make a difference."--Karen Joy Fowler

To reserve your seat, please purchase a copy of The Last Train to London by speaking with a bookseller or by clicking on the cover below.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 7:30pm

In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna's streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan's best friend and companion is the brilliant Zofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents' carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis' take control. 

Yet there is hope in the darkness. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss--Hitler's annexation of Austria--as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape. 

Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Zofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.

Meg Waite Clayton is the author of The Four Ms. Bradwells, The Wednesday Sisters, The Language of Light, and The Wednesday Daughters. She's written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Jose Mercury NewsForbesWriter's DigestRunner's World, and public radio. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, she lives in Palo Alto.

Event address: 
2904 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
The Last Train to London: A Novel By Meg Waite Clayton Cover Image
$27.99
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ISBN: 9780062946935
Published: Harper - September 10th, 2019