Just Enough to Start Over

Just Enough to Start Over follows the lives of three German Jewish sisters--Bertha, Annalena, and Hilde--throughout the turbulent twentieth century: their early years of prosperity in Mannheim; the rise of the Nazi Party; the family's escape to China; their experiences as refugees in Shanghai, New York, London, and Toronto; and the struggle of Bertha's American daughter to find her own identity apart from her mother's difficult history. Interlaced with the sisters' journeys are the stories of the family's three valuable paintings, first stolen then transported through wartime Europe and the Soviet Union as plundered art. Historical figures including the Austrian Expressionist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Max Beckmann, and members of the Soviet Trophy Brigade are woven into the fictional story. Just Enough to Start Over is a moving novel of exile, loss, and, ultimately, resilience, as well as the saving grace of creating art.