First published 2003
The surviving members of the 133rd Infantry Battalion gather in Belgium's Ardennes Forest fifty years after the brutal Nazi offensive of December 1944. These aging veterans have come to confront a mystery that has followed them since the war. Each man carries different memories of what happened during that desperate winter battle. As they walk the same ground where they once fought, old tensions surface between the survivors. The forest holds secrets about their unit that have never been spoken aloud. Through their conversations and flashbacks, the true story of the 133rd emerges. The reunion forces each veteran to face what the war took from him and what it left behind. Michael B. Oren, known for his historical nonfiction, creates his first novel around these men who must find courage once more, not in battle but in confronting their shared past.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, military-fiction, mystery, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Ardennes Forest, Belgium
Period: 1944, 1994
353 pages · Hardcover · MacAdam/Cage