Crossing the Borders of Time
A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed

Leslie Maitland is an award-winning formerNew York Timesinvestigative reporter whose mother and grandparents fled Germany in 1938 for France, where, as Jews, they spent four years as refugeesthe last two under risk of Nazi deportation. In 1942 they made it onto the last boat to escape France before the Germans sealed the harbors. Then, barred from entering the United States, they lived in Cuba for almost two years before immigrating to New York. This sweeping account of one familys escape from the turmoil of war-torn Europe hangs upon the intimate and deeply personal story of the passionate romance between Maitlands mother and a Catholic Frenchman. Separated by war and her familys disapproval, the young loversJanine and Rolandlose each other for fifty years. It is a testimony to both Maitlands investigative skills and her devotion to her mother that she successfully traced the lost Roland and was able to reunite him with Janine. Unlike so many stories of love during wartime, theirs has a happy ending.