Vienna Girl — Ingeborg Lauterstein

The year is 1945. In a darkened cellar in Vienna, fifteen-year-old Reyna Meinert and her grandmother have taken refuge from the invading Russians. The German army is defeated and the occupation is about to begin.

Emerging from her dark retreat, Reyna enters a world in confused transition. Through her eyes we witness the efforts of the “old order” to reclaim its position of authority. But in the grim aftermath of war, shadowed by the Nazi legacy of shame and guilt, the culture and charm of Old Vienna seem inadequate to the challenge of a new world. The social upheaval of the occupied city forms a backdrop for and reflection of Reyna's own disquieting passage through adolescence. Wise for her age, yet still not far removed from the innocence of childhood, she tells a story shaped by clear-eyed observance and the deeper truths revealed in fantasy.