In addition to teaching English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal, and writing for the Montreal Gazette. Though What World Is Left is set during the Holocaust, its themes have special relevance in today's complex world. About Monique Polak (Author) : It's a good thing I have a lot of energy because I like to do a lot of things. In What World Is Left, Anneke must come to terms not only with her own father's actions, but also with a world gone terribly wrong. Parents, teachers, and YA authors all try to teach young people to distinguish between right and wrong, but sometimes - especially perhaps in wartime - that distinction becomes blurred. Monique explores complex moral choices and their implications. This book includes an authors note, in which Monique Polak explains how it was inspired by her mothers true experience at Terezin, a Nazi concentration. As part of Monique's research for this book, she traveled to her mother's childhood home in Broek in Waterland, Holland visited the Jewish Lyceum she attended in Amsterdam (where Anne Frank was a fellow student) and traveled to Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic. What World is Left was inspired by the experiences of the author's mother, who was imprisoned in Theresienstadt during World War II. Because he is an artist, Anneke's father is compelled to help in the propaganda campaign, and Anneke finds herself torn between her loyalty to her family and her sense of what is right. Not only are conditions in the camp appalling, but the camp is the site of an elaborate hoax: the Nazis are determined to convince the world that Theresienstadt is an idyllic place and that European Jews are thriving under the Nazi regime.

Anneke's life changes in 1942 when the Nazis invade Holland, and she and her family are deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.

Though Anneke's family is Jewish, her religion means little to her. A pampered child used to having her own way, Anneke Van Raalte lives outside Amsterdam, where her father is a cartoonist for the Amsterdam newspaper.

What World is Left by Monique Polak