Stones from the River is set in Burgdorf, a small German town, between 1915 and 1951. Trudi Montag is a Zwerg--the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories.

Ursula Hegi is a fiction author. She lived in West Germany until she was 18. She moved to the United States and has lived both on the East Coast and in Spokane, Washington. She first wrote stories set in the United States, and then began to write fiction about Germany, including her best selling Oprah Book Club novel Stones from the River.