The Daughters of Yalta

As a reader and a writer, I love books that tell small stories to illuminate big ones, that explore pivotal moments in history through the experiences of vivid characters who stand at the side of the major players.

This Catherine Grace Katz does brilliantly in her account of the great international summit at the end of World War II, told through the eyes of three fascinating young women, all daughters of Yalta’s key participants.

I loved this book because it provides a vivid picture of the February 1945 Yalta conference, a key international summit where plans were drawn up for the post-Second World War European world. 

The conference is seen through the eyes of the daughters of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Averell Harriman, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, three of the conference’s key participants.

I found the descriptions of the conference’s inner workings and the profiles of the talented daughters and their prominent fathers captivating. Any reference that I now see to the Yalta conference will be far more meaningful.