“This is a poetic story of undying love full of insight and honesty that truly crosses the borders of time.”
Dan’s Hamptons
“Leslie Maitland’s personal account of her family is a major contribution to history interlaced with a lovely love story.”
Arts & Leisure News
“Crossing the Borders of Time will bewitch you…There is no fictionalized account of long-lost love that could be as compelling.”
Bookreporter
“A beautiful story.”
Washington Post
“An absorbing true account of romance, resilience, and survival…”
The Daily Beast
“Schindler’s List meets Casablanca in this tale of a daughter’s epic search for her mother’s prewar beau — 50 years later.”
Book Picks, Good Housekeeping
“This is a true story. That simple statement will seem remarkable to you once you have read this book.”
Cokie Roberts, NPR and ABC News analyst and author
“Schindler’s List meets Casablanca in this tale of a daughter’s epic search for her mother’s pre-war beau—50 years later.”
Good Housekeeping
“This riveting memoir was an unusual survival story of both loss and love… The ending warms the reader’s heart, and I highly recommend this true story.”
Cathy Becker, Cleveland Jewish News
“This is a worthy testament to how war and displacement conspire against personal happiness.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“The knock on the door that first pulled us into Maitland’s story leads to improbable and intriguing contemporary connections, some built on secrets not yet revealed. … I wait for Maitland’s sequel.”
Susan Roche, The Washington Independent Review of Books
“As gripping as any fiction… Readers hoping for a happy ending will be rewarded by a conclusion any novelist would have been happy to create.”
Cheryl Krocker McKeon, Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Leslie Maitland’s nonfiction account of her mother’s life Crossing the Borders of Time will keep you glued to its pages….Romantic novels don’t get as good as this book.”
Jewish Herald Voice
“This is a fascinating story of thwarted love, longing, and the travails of one woman and one family within the broader context of war and persecution.”
Starred review, Booklist
“…one of the most poignant love-lost, love-found stories I have ever read, with an ending that Hollywood wouldn’t dare.”
Robert MacNeil, Journalist-Author
“…the listener may forget this is a work of nonfiction—so engrossing is its story and so vividly is it told.”
AudioFile
“[Leslie Maitland’s] book is stunning…. I was swept away by the mystery, the love, and the journey. An incredible and utterly engrossing story!”
Roxanne Coady, R.J. Julia Booksellers
“Sometimes the truth is not ‘stranger than fiction’ but more compelling than fiction, and that’s the case here…. Well written and captivating, its story will stay with readers well after the book is finished.”
Library Journal, STARRED Review
“This is a touching story about the odd collision of fate and will. A poignantly rendered, impeccably researched tale of a rupture healed by time.”
Kirkus Reviews
“…a tale at once heartbreaking and uplifting, in which the story of a young woman’s love – revealed by her own daughter – triumphs over the tragedy of world events.”
Linda Fairstein, New York Times best-selling author of Silent Mercy
Separated by war and her family’s disapproval, the young lovers—Janine and Roland—lose each other for fifty years. It is a testimony to both Maitland’s investigative skills and her devotion to her mother that she successfully traced the lost Roland and was able to reunite him with Janine. Unlike so many stories of love during wartime, theirs has a happy ending.
Leslie Maitland is a writer and former award-winning reporter and national correspondent for The New York Times who specialized in legal affairs and investigative reporting. After breaking stories on the FBI’s undercover “Abscam” inquiry into corruption in Congress, she moved to The New York Times Washington Bureau to cover the Justice Department. Among other projects since leaving The Times, she began extensive research for this nonfiction book, including five reporting trips to Europe, one to Cuba, and another to Canada. A graduate of the University of Chicago and the Harvard Divinity School, she has regularly appeared on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR to discuss literature. The mother of a son and daughter, Maitland lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and a 12-pound Cockapoo named Thisbe. She has presented illustrated programs on Crossing the Borders of Time to audiences nationwide and connects with book clubs over Skype.