Tall tales are nothing new when it comes to family "history." Meriel Schindler's new book, "The Lost Cafe Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth," is her effort to determine the veracity of her dad's claims about their ancestors. Were the Schindlers really related to famed-Nazi foiler Oscar Schindler and a host of other artists, doctors and important people in western Europe? She focuses on a cafe her family owned in WWI-era Austria and finds it was the center of life in a lovely town before it was stolen from them. She uses a treasure trove of documents left behind by her father, and discovers how he stretched the truth in an effort to place his family in the center of the action during the most consequential period in world history. Not even writing a book could rectify her complicated feelings towards him.

Meriel Schindler is on social media here

Her website is here

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