What is lost along the way is always yourself Only saved from Hitler's concentration camps by a happy coincidence, Ruth Klüger became a respected literary scholar, self-confident feminist and internationally acclaimed writer in the USA. The complex relationship with her mother, her two sons, the unhappy marriage, the resentments she had to deal with as a woman and as a Jew at American universities are the themes of this autobiography. Here, a woman regains her mother tongue, confronts the losses that aging brings, confronts the shadows and visions of the past and present. "Among the wealth of Holocaust survivors' accounts, that of Ruth Klüger is one of the most moving, disturbing - a piece of world literature." Ulrich Weinzierl in 'Literary.