The Vienna Sketchbook

A young artist's talent saves her from persecution in Nazi-German occupied Austria during WWII.

Set against the haunting backdrop of 1938 Vienna and turn-of-the-millennium New York, The Vienna Sketchbook is a morally complex tale of survival, stark choices, and the healing power of art.

When 13-year-old Ingria arrives in Vienna for her sister's wedding to Januck, a young Austrian doctor, life seems full of hope. But as Nazi Germany occupies Austria, everything changes. Returning from drawing class, Ingria and Magda, Januck's younger sister, find their families gone and their lives shattered. Then, Ingria's portrait of Hitler, reluctantly drawn for a school assignment, unexpectedly wins a Nazi-sponsored competition, setting off a chain of betrayal and consequence that will haunt them for decades.

Now, sixty years later, Ingria resides in New York, surrounded by priceless art yet burdened by a wartime memory she has never shared. Waking in the night, she fetches her old sketchbook. What weighs more: the past or the present? And can the present ever make amends for the past? Those are the questions that Magda and Januck too, must face when they finally meet again.

The Vienna Sketchbook was originally published in Finland in 2017 by Aviador Kustannus under the author name Meritta Veilleux, and later under the name Meritta Koivisto.