Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage

-Crosses three popular genres: This intimate biography of a courageous woman crosses the genres of personal memoir, historical nonfiction, and riveting historical drama.

-For readers of Erik Larson: This book illuminates history through a dramatic personal account from a time of European crisis and features high-profile historical figures including Jakob Ehrlich, the sole Jewish representative on Vienna’s City Council in the 1930s, Chaim Weitzmann, the first president of Israel, arch-Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who organized the brutal Jewish exodus from Vienna, Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka, and more.

-Perfect book club material: A memoir that reads like historical fiction; the author’s exploration of her Jewish and Austrian heritage, as symbolized by a pair of diamonds, creates the empathetic bridge for readers to discuss pride, inheritance, and empowered women from before our time.