In her memoirs, Ilma Racusa follows a little girl as she was immediately after the end of World War II, when the new political and cultural contours of Europe were taking shape. She is the daughter of a Hungarian mother and a Slovenian father. Life leads her from a Slovak town through Budapest, Ljubljana and Trieste to Zurich, and from there even further to the East and West: to Leningrad and Paris. Remaining a stranger everywhere, the girl finds herself first in music, playing the piano, and then, having discovered Dostoevsky, in literature. And also on the move: on numerous trips and walks. “The Measure of the Sea” is not just memories of childhood and youth. The book resurrects what remains of contacts with people: sounds and voices, colors and moods, images and impressions.