Cover of Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson

Historical Fiction spotlight

Keeper of Lost Children

by Sadeqa Johnson

4.4Editorial rating

Post-war Germany, and the mixed-race children history agreed to forget.

From the author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve: the story of the children of German women and Black American soldiers, and the women who fought to protect them.

Publisher's blurb

Synopsis

Spanning the 1950s and 1960s, Johnson follows three lives bound to a group of children born to German mothers and Black GIs - children raised in institutions, shipped abroad, or hidden. It is a novel about motherhood under occupation, bureaucratic cruelty, and the enormous private effort required to keep a child in the record.

The editorial feature

Johnson's research never calcifies into lecture. The book's power comes from small administrative moments - a form filled in, a name changed - that carry the weight of whole lives. Bring tissues; check the content warnings.

Book details

Genre
Historical Fiction
Released
10 February 2026
Featured on
10 February 2026

Where to buy

Keeper of Lost Children is available from these retailers.

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