In twentieth-century Europe, the two great wars not only wrote the unfolding of history but also dramatically altered the landscape of life. This story tells the tale of how two peaceful families survived the Second World War and became intertwined by fate. Neither German family was particularly nationalistic. Sure, they did not stand up against oppression and slavery, but neither did they revel in it. Both families were ineluctably pulled into the ethnic and nationalist fighting that tore the continent apart.

Both families lived in a region called East Prussia, now in modern-day Poland. After Hitler’s invasion, one family had Polish slaves – “subhumans,” as they were called. They heard about, but did not participate in, the cruelties of Jewish extermination. As Germans, they survived during the war until the Russians invaded. Then, they, as Germans, became the subhumans, and the marvels of story, based on a true historical tale, take over.

This book portrays in vivid detail how World War II negatively affected the life of everyday folk. It’s easy to treat this war with a top-down approach, but Segovia reminds us how it darkened the lives of common people. Rape, murder, flight, enslavement, starvation, and death all fill this tale. Although some literary freedoms are taken (and acknowledged in the Author’s Note), the story adheres to the historical narratives. It leaves the reader with a lingering feeling of the senselessness of such nationalist campaigns of war.

This work, though dark in the main, ends on an optimistic note that is historically rooted. Its proper audiences include the advanced reader who is not disturbed by the ugliness and horrors of human life. Some ethnic stereotyping dwells within its pages. Russians, with only one real exception, are portrayed as uncivilized fiends. This story is a European tale of how so many groups dwelt upon the continent in unending wars and of how such a configuration constrained the human spirit. ( )