First published 2014
Nicolas von Bingen lives in luxury on his Bavarian estate with his two sons, while his best friend Alex von Hemmerle breeds prized white Lipizzaner horses. Their peaceful world shatters when Nicolas learns his late mother was Jewish, making his family a Nazi target. A Wehrmacht contact warns Nicolas's father, forcing Nicolas to grab his boys and flee Germany immediately. Alex gives Nicolas eight purebred horses, including two stunning Lipizzaners, as their only hope for survival in America. Nicolas reinvents himself as Nick Bing and joins the Ringling Brothers Circus in Florida, where Alex's prize stallion, renamed Pegasus, becomes the star attraction. Back in Germany, Alex faces impossible choices as war consumes Europe, while his daughter escapes to England. Nick builds a new life performing with Pegasus, his sons adapt to America, and eventually their abandoned past catches up with them. Steel chronicles how one family transforms tragedy into hope across fifty years.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Germany, Bavaria, America, Florida
Period: World War II
352 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press
Content warnings: violence, war