Anna Scanlon

Unravelled Anna Scanlon

"No one heard us. They decided not to, to turn their heads away. It was too much to bear. Too much to know. Too hard to swallow. But now that the world knows, now that the world has heard, it all seems so simple, so easy to defray. I screamed and no one heard. Next time, will you be listening?"

Aliz and her twin sister, Hajna, are enjoying their playful, carefree and comfortable life with their parents in Szeged, Hungary just before the Nazis invade. Seemingly overnight, their lives change drastically as they are transported to the ghetto on the outskirts of the city and then to Auschwitz to be used in Mengele's deadly twin experiments. After several months of brutal torture, Aliz is liberated to find that she is the only survivor in her family.

At not even 11 years old, Aliz must make the journey to San Francisco alone, an entire world away from everything she's known, in order to live with her only known relatives whom she has never met-- a depressed aunt and teenage cousin who is more than ready to escape her mother's melancholy.

Told through the eyes of both Aliz and her cousin Isabelle, Unravelled tells a powerful story of survival, hope, family and the lives war and genocide haunt long after liberation. It is a truly moving piece of historical fiction, based heavily on historical facts.

NOTE: This is a new edition featuring further edits and a historical note.