THE BLIND SIDE OF THE HEART tells of two World Wars, of hope, loneliness and love, and of a life lived in terrible times. It is a great family novel, a powerful portrayal of an era, and the story of a fascinating woman. Amid the chaos of civilians fleeing west in a provincial German railway station in 1945, Helene has brought her seven-year-old son. Having survived with him through the horrors and deprivations of the war years, she abandons him on the station platform and never returns.