The Last Letter

Anna Semionovna is a Russian Jewish doctor living in a small Ukrainian town which has just been invaded by the Germans. Sge wrutes a last letter to her son safely behind the front lines. Anna Semionovna knows that in a few days, she, amongst the recounts some of the major events in her life: her relashionship with her son, her love for him, her student life in Paris, her failed marriage. She desribes the cruelty and horro of the Occupation, the reluctance to admit what is happening, the collaboration, indifference and greed of some of her Ukrainian and Russian neighbours, the help and concern of the others and the gradual realization that her Jewish heritage is more important to her than her Russian nationality and communist beliefs.