But in time, the insidious racism of World War II Europe engulfs Seren and her family. Captured by the Nazis, Seren and her young sister Esther are sent to the labor camp Ravensbruck, where they are brutally treated and are given as little as a single carrot a day to eat. It is only through the quiet, determined strength of Seren that the girls survive. When finally liberated at the end of the War, twenty-seven year old Seren weighs little more than forty pounds.
There are many stories of Holocaust survivors, but The Seamstress ranks as one of the best. The memorable power of Seren's story is not in emotionally charged language, but in the simple, gritty details of this girl's overwhelming struggle to survive. Readers will not quickly forget the young heroine of this finely crafted biography.