From the acclaimed author of Floating in My Mother?s Palm and Children and Fire, a stunning story about ordinary people living in extraordinary times??epic, daring, magnificent, the product of a defining and mesmerizing vision? (Los Angeles Times).Trudi Montag is a Zwerg?a dwarf?short, undesirable, different, the voice of anyone who has ever tried to fit in. Eventually she learns that being different is a secret that all humans share?from her mother who flees into madness, to her friend Georg whose parents pretend he?s a girl, to the Jews Trudi harbors in her cellar. Ursula Hegi brings us a timeless and unforgettable story in Trudi and a small town, weaving together a profound tapestry of emotional power, humanity, and truth.