First published 2013
Eight-year-old Havaa crouches in the winter woods of rural Chechnya as Russian forces drag her father away into the December night of 2004. With nowhere else to turn, she flees with Akhmed, their neighbor and a physician who never succeeded in his calling. He brings her to the only sanctuary he knows: a hospital gutted by bombs where Sonja, the sole remaining doctor, tends to wounded rebels and displaced families while grieving her vanished sister. The building offers little safety, but Sonja agrees to hide the child if Akhmed will work as her assistant. Over five tense days, as patients arrive bloodied and desperate, the unlikely trio discovers that their lives intertwine in ways none of them suspected. Past betrayals surface alongside unexpected acts of mercy. In this place where survival seems impossible, they must choose between self-preservation and protecting each other, learning that love can transform ordinary people into something they never imagined they could become.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, war, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unlikely-allies
Setting: Chechnya, Russia
Period: 2004
384 pages · Hardcover · Hogarth
Content warnings: violence, war