In 1939, two young sisters disembark from a train in a strange land. They have arrived in Sweden and are about to meet their new “families.” Stephie and Nellie are among a trainload of Jewish children who have been spirited out of Austria to the relative safety of Sweden. The transition is difficult— new language, food, customs, religion—especially with no friends and an all consuming concern for their parents’ safety. A Faraway Island, the recipient of the 2010 Batchelder Award for translation, is the first of four books about the Steiner sisters and their life in Sweden during World War II. 2010 US BBY Outstanding International Books List, 2010 Mildred L. Batchelder Award, 2010 Sydney Taylor Honor Award. lmp

Originally published as En ö I Havet in Swedish by Bonnier Carlsen Sweden, in 1996. Translated by Linda Schenck.

Two Jewish sister leave Austria during WWII/Holocaust and find refuge in Sweden.


It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and seven-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can flee to Amsterdam; then all four will go to America. But as the world war intensifies, the girls remain, each with her own host family, on a rugged island off the western coast of Sweden.
Nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings. Not so for Stephie, who finds it hard to adapt; she feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who's as unforgiving as the island itself. It's no wonder Stephie doesn't let on that the most popular girl at school becomes her bitter enemy, or that she endures the wounding slights of certain villagers. Her main worry, though, is her parents—and whether she will ever see them again.