The Length of a String

By Elissa Brent Weissman

A diary reveals a hidden past, reshaping Imani's quest for her birth parents.

4.4/5 Goodreads · 1,229 ratings

384 pages· 68,348 words· Est. 7.5 hour read

$17.99Save 7%

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Bookroo's summary

Imani, adopted and curious about her origins, seeks her birth parents as a bat mitzvah gift. Her journey takes an unexpected turn when she finds her great-grandmother Anna's diary, detailing a harrowing escape from Nazi-occupied Europe to a new life in America. As Imani delves into Anna's past, she uncovers profound connections and redefines her understanding of family. Will the secrets of the past illuminate her own path forward?

From the publisher

Imani is adopted, and she’s ready to search for her birth parents. But when she discovers the diary her Jewish great-grandmother wrote chronicling her escape from Holocaust-era Europe, Imani begins to see family in a new way. Imani knows exactly what she wants as her big bat mitzvah gift: to find her birth parents. She loves her family and her Jewish community in Baltimore, but she has always wondered where she came from, especially since she’s black and almost everyone she knows is white. Then her mom’s grandmother–Imani’s great-grandma Anna–passes away, and Imani discovers an old journal among her books. It’s Anna’s diary from 1941, the year she was twelve and fled Nazi-occupied Luxembourg alone, sent by her parents to seek refuge in Brooklyn, New York. Anna’s diary records her journey to America and her new life with an adoptive family of her own. And as Imani reads the diary, she begins to see her family, and her place in it, in a whole new way.