As a child growing up in the once-beautiful city of Budapest, Anna Porter's grandfather told her stories of heroes and strife and survival, some as old as the Carpathian basin, some still holding the sting of recent war and hardship. Some were fanciful, most were true, and all gave her a personal sense of history, both national and familial. This compulsively readable saga blends one family's story with that of its homeland during one of the 20th century's most tumultuous periods.