A Boy in Winter

By Rachel Seiffert,

Book cover of A Boy in Winter

Book description

Early on a grey November morning in 1941, only weeks after the German invasion, a small Ukrainian town is overrun by the SS. Deft, spare and devastating, Rachel Seiffert's new novel tells of the three days that follow and the lives that are overturned in the process. Penned in with…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked A Boy in Winter as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved this beautifully written novel which embraces and honours the Ukrainian spirit. It is 1942 and the Germans have arrived in a small town in Western Ukraine. When the schoolmaster and his wife are rounded up and murdered along with all the other Jews, Yaisa, a local peasant girl, instinctively hides their two young sons away. The massacre is witnessed with horror both by a Ukrainian Auxiliary, now remorseful at having joined the German police, and by a German engineer who is building roads with forced Ukrainian labour. Now the hunt is on for the Jewish boys – and…

Early on a grey November morning in 1941, only weeks after the German invasion, a small Ukrainian town is overrun by the SS. This novel focusses on Yankel, a boy determined to survive when all hope seems lost. This is a powerful story about terror and fear and the possibility of courage to face them. It reminds me of a day in the 1930s when my own father was ordered to appear at SS headquarters and urged to join them as a volunteer. When he refused, life was changed forever for his wife and child, and he soon found himself…

From Heinz's list on WW2 through the eyes of children.

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