At the start of the war, eight-year-old Max Bernot lives with his sister and parents in Lauterbach, Saarland, a narrow strip of territory between the French and German defence lines. His German father, Anton, and his French mother, Marguerite, do their best to shield Max and his sister, Anna, from Nazi violence, but in late 1944, their beloved godfather is executed in their garden by the SS, and Max, now thirteen, is conscripted in the Volkssturm. Less than a month later, Max flees a Hitler Youth camp in Bavaria with his best friend, Hans. His mission: to return home and tell his mother the truth about his godfather's murder. As he escapes, he sends postcards to his family that trace his fraught journey across a country in its death throes. Unbeknownst to Max, his mother is trapped in the German interior, coerced into working for a fanatical Nazi officer. Desperate to escape and reunite her family, Marguerite must first protect Anna from the sinister attentions of their captor, who could hold information on Max's whereabouts even as Allied planes circle closer.

• Format: Paperback / softback
• Publication Date: 31/03/2026
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Country of Origin: United States
• Edition: Local Edition
• Pages: 352