The Camp

The Camp is where most of the novel's action takes place. It has no name or specific location and the author writes in her postscript that it is a fictional amalgam of the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. She describes it as a long and low line of barracks surrounded by barbed wire, walls, and watchtowers that hold armed guards. The room in which the women and girls sleep has a row of ovens on one side and wooden sleeping shelves built into a deep recess in the other wall, in stacks of three. The dining room, exercise area, and garbage dump are other places sketchily described in the camp.

New Rochelle

New Rochelle is the hometown of Hannah Stern and her family in New York. It is not described, although Hannah thinks about it during her time in the concentration camp.

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