Reiss won the Newbery Medal for her account of her experiences as a child during the Holocaust, The Upstairs Room, which was followed by the sequel The Journey Back, both published by HarperCollins.

In A Hidden Life, Reiss recounts her visit to the home of her youth and the tragedy that followed.

She made this journey in the summer of 1969, spending nearly two months in the Netherlands with her husband and her two young children.

But during that time, a worse and more immediate tragedy befell her: her husband returned to America early and committed suicide.

A Hidden Life, which Lucy Kavaler calls "one of the most moving books" she has ever read, is the story of one woman's perseverance through past and present tragedy.