A Faraway Island

Stephie and Nellie Steiner are sent from Vienna to Sweden in 1939 to escape the German persecution of the Jews. Their mother and father have to remain behind, and Stephie, who is twelve, has promised to look after her little sister. On the ferry carrying them to their new home, Stephie tells Nellie they are going to live at a vacation resort with palm trees along the boardwalk, sandy beaches, sun chairs and ice cream vendors, and that their new family will have a piano and a dog.

The island in the ocean off the coast of Göteborg is nothing like what they imagined. It consists of not much more than boulders, fishing vessels and boathouses. It reeks of fish, and no-one speaks their language. They have to live here now, at the end of the world. And they are not even being housed with the same family.