Dark Hours

Entombed following a bombing raid at the close of World War II, three children struggle to survive.

On Gisel's 16th birthday, her world, like the war effort, begins to crumble. Her father is away, serving in the German army, when the advancing Allies force the rest of the family to flee their home. Gisel, her younger brothers, and their pregnant mother board a crowded train. But when their mother goes into labor, the children are separated from her at the next station.

Before they know what's happening an air raid siren sounds, and Gisel barely manages to hustle her siblings into a trackside bathroom. When the bombs hit, the children are trapped. As they await rescue, Gisel's only adult communication is with a dying soldier, buried on the other side of the wall, who offers guidance on how to survive.

Told as a grandmothers birthday gift to her 16-year-old granddaughter,
Dark Hours is a suspenseful and dramatic novel about the injustice of war, its impact on ordinary people, and the hope that resonates in the human soul.

Set in the closing days of WWII Germany this is the story of Gisel's 16th birthday. Separated from their pregnant mother while fleeing the Allies' advance Gisel and her younger siblings are trapped in an air raid shelter.

VOYA

Forced to flee her Silesian home to escape the advancing Russian army, fifteen-year-old Gisela Beck struggles to reach Dresden with her family in the waning days of World War II. Trauma is heaped upon trauma when her pregnant mother goes into labor while en route and must be left behind. While waiting in a train station, memories flood Gisela's mind: the sudden flight from home, the initial exhilaration of an ordinary German girl caught in Hitler's thrall, her eventual disillusionment with National Socialism. Air raid sirens shatter her reverie. Separated from her grandmother in the ensuing chaos, Gisela must summon the strength of an adult and find shelter for herself and her younger brothers. What follows is a story that teeters between despair and hope, loss and triumph. A forward written by Pausewang outlining a brief history of the rise of Hitler will assist American readers not familiar with modern European history. Initially a bit slow, the novel becomes a page-turner once the children become separated from their grandmother. Although history is sometimes a hard sell with teens, this book will appeal to those who enjoy stories about intense experiences. Pausewang paints a realistic picture of a teen in extraordinarily trying circumstances and the shifting effect of tragedy and loss on one's politics and priorities. Letters from an elderly Gisela to her granddaughter on her sixteenth birthday frame the story, adding a poignant personal touch that elevates the book well above ordinary historical fiction.

Gudrun Pausewang is a highly acclaimed, award-winning author in her native Germany. She was an eyewitness to events of the period in which the book is set, and was forced to flee her own village at age 17.

John Brownjohn has translated more than 50 novels into English from German and French. He is also a screenwriter whose credits include the Roman Polanski films Pirates and The Ninth Gate.