Just Enough to Start Over

"A gorgeous novel, Just Enough to Start Over is a feat of imagination."
—Foreword Reviews, starred review

"A gorgeously written novel, all at once profound, relatable, and wry . . . Just Enough to Start Over wowed me."
—Elinor Lipman, author of The Inn at Lake Devine

A pianist, an artist, and a poet, the three Dubrovsky sisters have grown up in comfort in Mannheim, Germany. As the threat of the Nazi party looms ever larger, the family packs their lives into two crates and flees to China. Just Enough to Start Over follows their experiences as refugees in Shanghai (and London, and Toronto); their crash—landing with a cousin in New York; the slow effort to build a life in a new country; and, later, the struggle of the family’s American daughter to find her own identity outside of their difficult history.

Echoing the Dubrovskys’ odyssey is the story of their three valuable paintings. First stolen, then transported through wartime Europe and the Soviet Union, these artworks and the lives they encounter on their journeys deepen the book’s perspectives. Meanwhile, historical figures including Max Beckmann, the Austrian Expressionist Marie—Louise von Motesiczky, and members of the Soviet Trophy Brigade all play their parts in this wry and poignant novel of loss, resilience, and the saving grace of creating art.