Yesterday I was finishing up my review of the Rybczynski memoir and happened to look at the dust jacket copy.
"His mother and father made separate escapes," I read, "reuniting against many odds on a ship bound for Scotland from Marseilles."
This was disconcerting, as I had written that his parents had reunited in the Atlantic coast town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where they then boarded a ship bound for England.
I reread the chapter and confirmed that my version was correct. The couple eventually moved to Scotland, but the ship they took to Great Britain landed in Plymouth. (I know what New York editors are thinking: England, Scotland, what's the difference?) Marseilles is mentioned once in the chapter, as the town the father stopped in while driving, wifeless, from Bucharest to Paris. (Marseilles, Saint-Jean-de-Luz - come on, they're both in France, and Marseilles is better known. And who really cares where the parents reunited? The main thing is they did.)
But the book is published by Scribner, which is not a shabby house. Perhaps I should contact them and offer my services as a dust jacket fact checker.
