1945. Dead of night and dead of winter; war brings a stranger to the door; a family is tricked into a act of compassion and danger.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026
FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE DARK ROOM AND A BOY IN WINTER
'A complex, intelligent, deeply compassionate novel about the unglamorous aftermath of war . . . A brilliant piece of story-telling' ANDREW MILLER, author of THE LAND IN WINTER
'This fine novel investigates the fate of displaced people in the hazardous, dirty backwash of the second world war' GUARDIAN
'Marvellous . . . a wide-ranging novel that beautifully balances the tumultuous reach of history with the everyday concerns of ordinary people' DAILY MAIL
'Powerful . . . Seiffert's writing beautifully captures this devastating moment of history' SPECTATOR
To be truly alive means having to make choices. To be truly alive is also, quite simply, to love.
Northern Germany, 1945. Dead of night and dead of winter, a boy hears soldiers and sees strangers - forced labourers - fleeing across the heathland by his small town: shawls and skirts in the snowfall. The end days are close, war brings risk and chance, and Benno is witness to something he barely understands.
Peace brings more soldiers - but English this time - and Red Cross staff officers. Ruth, on her first posting from London, is given charge of a refugee camp on the heathland, crowded with former forced labourers. As ever more keep arriving, she hears whispers, rumours of dark secrets about that snowy night.
The townspeople close ranks, shutting their mouths and minds to the winter's events, but the town children are curious about the refugees on their doorstep, and Benno can't carry his secret alone.
'Rachel Seiffert's outstanding novel is full of feeling but without sentimentality' JUDGES OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR FICTION
'This entire novel reverberates in ways that only haunt the reader more and more deeply, long after its last page' PAUL HARDING, author of THIS OTHER EDEN
'She has brought to life a complex interaction between survivors on both sides with humanity and compassion' LINDA GRANT, author of THE STORY OF THE FOREST
'The patron saint of this gripping novel is Bertolt Brecht. This is a fascinating novel by one of our very best writers' JEWISH CHRONICLE
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