Book description
In 1984, Catherine Laylle, a Frenchwomen living in London, met and
married a German medical student, Dieter the couple had two sons,
Alexander and Constantin. When, however, at Dieter's insistence, they
moved back to his home town in Germany, the marriage began to fall
apart. Dieter refused to get a job, Catherine found living with his
family oppressive and eventually, she returned to London with the
children. The boys spent term time with their mother, holidays with
their father - until the summer of 1994, when Dieter decided that his
sons should be raised as Germans and, with the support of the local
judge, defied the London court ruling that gave Catherine custody.
Catherine went to the courts in London , Germany and the Hague - but it
seemed that no court outside the jurisdiction of Lower Saxony would
overrule the decision. Today, Alexander is eleven and Constantin is
nine. Catherine has barely seen them in the two years since Dieter
kidnapped them - and then only under the supervision of one of his
friends. This is the harrowing story of a mother's attempts to regain
her children, and of her desperate struggle against a tyrannical family
and the blind injustice of the courts in Europe.
