In her memoir, Par Coeur / By Heart, Wisconsin writer Ronnie Hess explores a rich and complex bilingual and multicultural personal history, with family ties to France, England, and Germany. Her childhood in New York City is scarred by a difficult French education and by her mother's emotional and physical distance. In her teens, Hess discovers family letters that reveal shadowy secrets, the trauma of wartime losses, and a desperate struggle for survival. Later, the many difficulties of understanding the past are eased with a journey to reconnect with her European roots, helping Hess to transcend a family history of unspoken pain. Beautiful, at times haunting, other times joyful, in language direct and poetic, Hess's story does not shy away from the deep introspection that reveals profound truths.