The Most Precious of Cargoes

the long version

A fairytale-like novel set during the height of World War II finds a childless, impoverished woodcutter's wife risking her safety to take in and protect a Jewish baby, a twin abandoned under desperate circumstances. World War II. In an enormous forest a woodcutter and his wife find it difficult to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child. A Jewish father rides on a train holding twin babies. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed both children. In hopes of saving them both, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and throws her into the forest. While foraging for food, the wife finds a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. Although she knows harboring this baby could lead to her death, she takes the child home. -- adapted from jacket.