Their Promised Land

A family history of surpassing beauty and power: Ian Buruma's account of his grandparents' enduring love through the terror and separation of two world wars Ian Buruma's maternal grandparents were born into the same world: children of German-Jewish émigré stockbrokers living in London. But at the demand of his parents, Ian's grandfather, the dutiful son, broke up with his fiancée by letter just before leaving for the western front during World War I, where he served as a stretcher bearer in the Battle on the Somme. It was the first great shock their romance would suffer, but their love would survive it. Bernard ("Bun") and Winifred ("Win") Schlesinger were married for more than sixty years, but the heart of the story Buruma tells with characteristic grace in Their Promised Land lies within the span of the two world wars. This is the moving story of an assimilated Jewish family in unhappy times, held together by a shared love of classical...