Inspired by true events, Bright One follows the life Jetti Finkelthal, a young Jewish mother in Czernowitz, Romania, as she faces impossible choices in a world unraveling around her. As antisemitism tightens its grip and war presses ever closer, Jetti clings to her daughter, Berta, with the fragile hope that love and courage can carve out a path to survival.

Drawn from family letters, photographs, and oral histories, Lisajoy Sachs brings to life a story that is both intimate and universal—woven with the threads of daily life, the pull of memory, and the heroism of women who refused to surrender to despair.

Through Jetti’s sacrifices and fortitude, Bright One illuminates the enduring strength of family bonds and the shadows of trauma that pass through generations. It is a story of loss and survival, and of the unbreakable thread between mother and child.

For readers drawn to historical fiction that lingers in the heart long after the last page, Bright One offers a deeply human portrait of love tested by history’s darkest hours.