A DIRT ROAD HANGS FROM THE SKY by Claudia Serea

Written in unsparing, haunting detail, Claudia Serea's unforgettable A Dirt Road Hangs From the Sky brings to life the horrors of the brutal Communist repression in her native Romania in the second part of the 20th century -- the prisons, the torture, the barbarous inhumanity -- preserving in memory a time that should never be forgotten. She writes: "Tell me, grandma, everything you know / so I can be your mouth when you are gone." The grief is lasting; memory must serve as justice.