First published 2012
Margarete Dos arrives in Berlin with her family just as World War II begins. She and her younger brother join the Hitler Youth like countless other German children. Margarete watches her country transform around her, struggling to make sense of the changes. She becomes a nurse with the German Red Cross and tends to young soldiers recruited at the last moment to fight a war Germany cannot win. These boys die in her care as Allied bombs destroy her city. Her intelligence and love of life sustain her through the war's final days. When the fighting ends, Margarete believes her suffering is over. She boards a train with her mother bound for Sweden. Instead, authorities reroute them deep into Russia. Margarete faces a new ordeal simply because she is German. Her story reveals the overlooked nightmare that millions of German civilians endured after the war ended.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, world-war-ii
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, family-secrets
Setting: Berlin, Russia, Sweden
Period: World War II
384 pages · Kindle Edition · Lyons Press
Content warnings: death, war