by John Wilson

“Although it is night as Sergei emerges from the cellar that is now home, countless fires make it as bright as day. Above him, the sky is busy with red and green flares, arcing tracer bullets and the fiery path of rockets. Explosions and the pop of small-arms fire echo in every direction. The air is sickly sweet with the smell of decomposing bodies. None of this bothers Sergei. It is just a game, bigger and more dangerous than the one he used to play in the courtyard, but still a game.” [from p. 91]

The year is 1942, and 8-year-old Sergei’s home, in what used to be Stalingrad, is now a pile of rubble. He is caught between the monstrous forces of the invading Nazi army, and the Russians defending the city. We are drawn into both worlds through the eyes of the idealistic Russian sniper Vasily and Conrad, the determined young German tank commander. Their destinies, and Sergei’s, clash and intertwine on one of the bloodiest battlegrounds the world has seen.