I first read this book sixteen years ago, forgot the name and author, and spent years trying to find it again. A powerful, beautifully written novel of ordinary people at the outset of war--those in rural England, the boy who travels to France and Belgium to witness slaughter and oppression, the Czech Jew who has lost everything but her strength... It succeeds on every level as literature. And to my joy I know learn it is the first of a trilogy. Next, She Goes to War. Ms. Pargeter is to be thanked. ( )