´The night the men came I ran away, through the back garden door...´ Holland, 1940 When her father returns home with a parcel of yellow stars it´s clear that life is changing for Marga and her entire family; the Nazi occupation is casting a dark shadow over Amsterdam. But much worse is to come and when the authorities come to the family home, a split decision will have devastating consequences. Written in a charmingly naive, deceptively simple but profoundly moving style, Marga Minco´s autobiographical novel, Bitter Herbs, has been compared to Anne Frank´s Diary and is a Dutch classic being reissued with a new translation from Jeannette K Ringold.