Stumbling Stones

It was only a chance meeting, while visiting Switzerland in 2014, that gave Miriam Landor the story of her father's German Jewish background. This led her to the Bavarian city of Landshut where her great-grandparents are memorialised in Stolpersteine, 'stumbling stones'; these are brass plaques set into the pavement outside the last abode of victims of the Nazi regime.

In this moving memoir, Miriam interweaves her own life story with that of her father's family, using her training as a psychologist to analyse the impact of the past on their lives, and on her own. Frequently relocated as a child due to her father's international service with UNDP, Miriam eventually settled in Orkney. Here she brought up her own family, and began a process of deep reflection.

Stumbling Stones is a story of displacement and self-discovery, and of redemption and reconciliation, told with remarkable frankness, perception and insight. As such, it is a fascinating account of how learning about our own past can help us to understand who we can be.