During WWII it was not unusual for "death trains" to cross Europe loaded with thousands of starving Jews. Having spent his teenage years in concentration camps, Arnost Lustig found himself on one of these transports in 1945, on the way to his own death. Along with a close friend, who was also a teenager, he made an incredibly daring escape. This is the story of that escape, and the weeks that the two boys spent in the dark forests of Germany trying to survive against hunger and cold, to avoid capture by the Germans, and to return to their native Prague. On the psychological plane, the book explores the subconscience minds of the boys as they experience extreme fear, starvation, and physical exhaustion in their desperate flight toward freedom against such incredible odds. -- Publisher description.