Lost and Found: Surviving Displacement, Finding Love, Uncovering Secrets

The memoir, Lost and Found, tells the story of a girl who flees with her family from post-World War II Romania, and then as a nine-year old is whisked away in the dead of night from her childhood home in Haifa, Israel. Leaving behind her beloved grandmother, the family immigrates to Montreal, Canada, where she feels utterly lost. The new culture, with different languages, customs, and multiple dominant religions is disorienting and Ann struggles to adapt, fit in, and find herself. Her ability to do so is compromised by her own emotional trauma and that of her parents, as well as the restrictions placed on her by their minority religion and its placement in society. When she meets the love of her life at a young age, she learns that his family’s history of displacement and survival during the Holocaust parallels her own. As she matures, has children, and her ambitions grow, the author finds an inner strength. Even a shocking family secret learned late in life that might have shattered another person’s world view, only strengthens her resolve to remain true to herself.