Ruth Zelig migrated three times and lived in four countries before the age of twenty, changing languages (at least five), cultures, and school systems in each place. She got a master’s degree in Linguistics at the University of Rochester, NY, and a bachelor’s in Linguistics and French at Lehman College, CUNY. She was a systems engineer at IBM for years, consulting with clients as programmer and analyst; today, she is a writer, photographer, and gardener who lives in Manhattan with her husband of forty-three years.

For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, an epistolary memoir about two young women’s friendship across continents and decades—an enduring connection kept alive by the simple act of written correspondence.

When Ruth’s family migrates from Brazil to North America in 1964, she and her best friend, Elana, are forced to separate. They decide to keep in touch via written correspondence—an exchange that ultimately persists for twenty years. From São Paulo, Elana writes candidly with warmth, dedication, and support, easing Ruth’s assimilation to first Canada, then the United States. Lonely and uprooted, Ruth derives solace from the friendship and the correspondence. As both girls mature and embark on a life in different countries and cultures, their bonds transcend their differences. They remain friends for life.

Fifty years after parting, Ruth and Elana re-read aloud the letters that they exchanged as young women. The experience of hearing their words written in letters and sent like a bridge across the continent and half a lifetime is a revelation that stuns the friends: the antecedent voice spoken in the concrete voice of the present.