"What You Didn't Say" is a tender and insightful narrative, the memoirs of a distinguished historian, exploring the European conflicts of the 20th century through the life, hopes, and dreams of a unique family - the author's family. By delving into the extraordinary and moving stories of its members, Mark Mazower recounts the sacrifices and silences that marked a generation and its descendants. Fate led members of the family to experience the siege of Stalingrad, confinement in the Vilna Ghetto, the Occupation in Paris, and even find themselves on the lines of the Wehrmacht. His British father, the son of Russian-Jewish emigrants who escaped the Bolsheviks, the civil war, and the revolution and settled in London, was the fortunate one in the family. Max, the author's grandfather, a socialist who fought against the Tsar's soldiers at barricades, never spoke about it. Frouma, Max's wife, came from a family that, although tested by the Great Purges, managed to find its way in Soviet society.

One hundred years after the Russian Revolution, "What You Didn't Say" unravels the story of a socialism that has been erased from memory - the passionate humanistic socialism that resonated with a wide range of people. At the same time, it explores the unexpected happiness that may await the lost ones of History, the power of friendship, as well as the love for a place, a sentiment that allowed Max and Frouma's son to consider England his homeland.