Girl Left Behind - by Judy Temes (Paperback)

About the Book

What happens when a family flees Communism-leaving one child behind? This is the story of one such child after her family departs in the night leaving her behind with her grandmother in a tiny Hungarian village.

Book Synopsis

At age five, Judy Temes was living with her parents and brother in a small town near Hungary's southern border. Unlike most, the family had comforts: a roomy apartment, a television, even a vacation home. What more could anyone want? But for her father, a doctor and a survivor of the Holocaust, living among the people who stood by as his family was taken to their deaths in cattle cars had become untenable.

On a summer night in 1969, the family packed the car for what was supposed to be a vacation to Vienna. Only this was no vacation. They were escaping Hungary's totalitarian regime, using tourist visas that allowed entry into a Western country. Such visas, however, came at a high price. One child had to be left behind. This was the government's way to ensure that citizens who left the country would return.

The child left behind was "Juditka," who would go on to live with her grandmother in a tiny lakeside Hungarian village. When, if ever, would she see her family again? No one knew.

Review Quotes

"Such a lyrical, soul-rending, sumptuous book! It captures the heart and mind of a Hungarian girl who is sad and brave at the same time as she tries to make sense of what looks like her family's desertion. A testament to the triumph of the human spirit in the face of deep loneliness and loss, Girl Left Behind reminds us that one can have no home anywhere and at the same time have a special kind of home everywhere."

-Daniel Asa Rose

Author of Hiding Places: A Father and His Sons

Retrace Their Family's Escape from the Holocaust,

and other books

"This is a story full of heartache but also one which celebrates the strength of the human spirit and the will to survive. It is a book for anyone who has lost someone they loved, or even anyone who never has, but fears the experience. In short-this is a book for everyone."

-Elizabeth Cohen

Author of The Family on Beartown Road:

A Memoir of Love and Courage

"Girl Left Behind is a gripping, heartbreaking, and strikingly beautiful memoir of the immigrant experience that is all the more relevant and necessary in today's political climate. In a tale that is reminiscent of The Liar's Club and The Glass Castle, Judy Temes, a masterful and compassionate storyteller, captivates the reader with her charm, wit, and lyrical prose. This is a story that will stick with me, and that I will never be able to leave behind."

-William Dameron

Author of The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages,

Catfishing and Coming Out