The Dark Room weaves a complex family tapestry, the author’s personal experience growing up in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s as one of eight children of parents who fled Nazi Germany separately, met and married quickly, then re-started their lives as Americans in Seattle.

Her mother juggled raising her eight children with her career as a photographer and her passion as a civil rights activist. To the outside world she was an icon, a hero.

Inside the family home, a different story unraveled. Claudia’s mother violated her trust and her body, a betrayal of the most profound maternal bond.

And yet, The Dark Room is not a story of hatred, revenge, or bitterness; rather it is, by turns, healing, funny, and inspirational. Ultimately, it is a testament about the ability to break the cycle of abuse, to thrive and to love.

Prior to writing The Dark Room, Claudia was an attorney and a law clerk for a justice on the Hawaii Supreme Court. Later she became a television producer, creating award-winning documentaries for the NBC and CBS affiliates in Honolulu. She is a mother to two sons, a grandmother to four grandsons, and a partner to her husband for almost 50 years.