The startling discovery in a flat in Melbourne, Australia, of over 160 letters exchanged between a young, loving Jewish couple in Nazi Germany was the catalyst for former ABC journalist Dagmar Strauss Yaaris exploration of her parents hidden past. The sudden windfall of old letters is replete with unexpected revelations. As the letters are translated, a fascinating family drama unfolds. Strauss Yaari learns of her fathers arrest by the Gestapo while on his honeymoon, an event that separates her newlywed parents, Gottfried and Irene Strauss, for an agonising three years. The author was stunned to discover her gentle and unassuming father had been charged and convicted for preparation for high treason. This event and more are artfully depicted in Their Lives Before Us. It is a story of suffering and survival in calamitous circumstances and the beginning of a journey that moves from Germany to Japanese-controlled Shanghai, China, and ends on the distant shores of Australia.