YOUNG people studying the Second World War in history will be fascinated by this documentary novel about one English family's fortunes during the conflict.
Ellen and Matthias meet and marry at the end of the First World War, but Matthias is German and when his once devastated country begins to rise again under the Nazis, his love for his homeland and family there are seriously challenged.
Visiting his brother in Germany with Ellen and their two younger children, he finds himself taken to a Hitler Youth rally. This experience later returns to haunt them all when war breaks out and Matthias is interned as an enemy alien'.
Meanwhile, the couple's elder son, Walter, has rejected the whole family because of the German link, joins the RAF and has no further contact before he is killed. An interesting read which should provoke much thought about how people apply their moral codes when they find themselves at war with their own country.
(Age 11+)
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