The Star on the Grave

In 1940, as the Nazis sweep toward Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defies his government and secretly issues visas to fleeing Jewish refugees. After the war, Sugihara is dismissed and disappears into obscurity.

Three decades later, in Australia, Rachel Margol is shocked when her engagement reveals a long-held family secret: she is Jewish. As she grapples with this deception and the dysfunction it has caused, unspoken tragedies from the past begin to come to light. When an opportunity arrives to visit Chiune Sugihara, the man who risked his life to save the Margols during World War II, Rachel becomes determined to meet him. But will a journey to Japan, and the secrets it uncovers, heal the family or fracture them for good?

The Star on the Grave is a powerful and moving novel inspired by the true story of Chiune Sugihara, and the thousands of people - including the author - who owe him their lives.

About the Author

Linda Margolin Royal was born in Sydney, Australia, forever thankful her father and grandparents received life-saving transit visas from Chiune Sugihara in 1940, which enabled them to enter Japan and escape the Holocaust. This ultimately meant they could find a permanent home in Australia in 1941 and she was able to be born into freedom. The remainder of her family, numbering in the hundreds, was murdered in concentration camps.

She trained as a graphic designer and then copywriter, and spent thirty years in the advertising industry both in Australia and the US, writing advertisements for TV and radio and general press for multinational companies. Linda's creative bent extends to abstract painting and drawing from live models.

She now speaks regularly at events about her personal experience of being alive only thanks to the actions of the two courageous strangers she aims to immortalise, who risked their lives to save desperate Jewish refugees fleeing extermination.

The Star on the Grave is her first novel. A sequel and prequel are in development.