From an award winning author comes a deeply personal and powerful account of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in a small town in Germany in the 1950s. Hanna conjours up unforgettably the events of her youth: her magical bond to her unconventional mother; her friendship with an illegitmate son of an American GI; and the lessons in local lore that are served with tea and innuendo by the town's dwarf librarian.