LETTER FROM A STRANGER

Having completed a film documentary director, Justine Nolan, returns to the Connecticut family home. Her mother, Deborah, in China working a business deal, directs Julene to open her mail. Justine opens a letter with no return address postmarked Istanbul. Anita Lowe, their Gran' s friend, sent this note to Deborah's saying her mother is heartbroken and needs to end their estrangement for Gran turns eighty and is and in poor health. Justine is stunned to learn that Gran is alive for her mother told she and her brother, Richard, that their Gran had died in a plane crash. They had grieved their loss ever since.

The brother and sister decide to find Gran and Justine goes to Istanbul to look for Gran on the pretense that she is doing a documentary of the city. Their neighbor and good friend, Joanne, arranges for Justine to meet her friend, Professor Ifrit Ozgonal in Turkey. Even with the help of Ifrit, Justine cannot find Gran. While going on a boat ride touring the city, Jestine sees her Gran in her camera lens. She rushes past everyone including Gran's best friend Anita and her grandson to hug her Gran. Both are thrilled. Justine tells Gran, that her mother Deborah, told she and Richard that Gran had died. Besides such a great family story, this book written by Barbara Taylor Bradford, also gives insight into Berlin during WW II and a wonderful tour of modernday Istanbul. Readers will enjoy learning Gran's final solution to their family problem that turned Deborah against her.