Skeletons at the Feast

In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: an attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines.

Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats. There is her lover, Callum Finella, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war who was brought from the stalag to her family’s farm as forced labor. And there is a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred–who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz.

As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–assuming any of them even survive.

Perhaps not since The English Patient has a novel so deftly captured both the power and poignancy of romance and the terror and tragedy of war. Skillfully portraying the flesh and blood of history, Chris Bohjalian has crafted a rich tapestry that puts a face on one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies–while creating, perhaps, a masterpiece that will haunt readers for generations.


From the Hardcover edition.

• My Mother's Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story
• The Silent Woman: The USA TODAY BESTSELLER - a gripping historical fiction
• Lisette's List: A Novel
• Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival
• Five Quarters of the Orange: A Novel (P.S.)
• And After the Fire: A Novel
• Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America
• Secrets of a Charmed Life
• The Tilted World: A Novel
• The Septembers of Shiraz: A Novel (P.S.)