Elisabeth de Waal bola autorka, ktorej dielo skúmalo komplexnosť identity a exilu. Jej literárny prístup sa vyznačoval hlbokým vhľadom do ľudskej psychiky a jemným jazykom. Písala o témach, ktoré rezonovali s jej vlastnými skúsenosťami, a zanechala po sebe zbierku diel, ktoré odrážajú jej hĺbku a citlivosť.
Anita, who has lived in Austria through the Second World War, comes to live in a large English country house in the early 1950s. She forms a close bond with its elderly owner, Mr Barlow, and another with his grandson Tony. But what does the future hold for any of them, for the house, and for England itself?
"The Exiles Return is set in Occupied Vienna in 1954-5. It describes five people who grew up there before the war and have come back to see if they can re-establish the life they have lost. The novel begins with Professor Kuno Adler, who is Jewish and fled Vienna after the Anschluss (the events of March 1938 when Hitler's troops marched into Austria). He is returning from New York to try and take up his old life as a research scientist. We realise through his confrontation with officialdom and with the changed fabric of the city (the lime trees are there no longer, it is hard to know who behaved well during the war and who was a Nazi sympathiser) that a refugee who goes back has a very difficult time. Next we are introduced to a wealthy Greek named Kanakis..."--Publisher description