The new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Dark Room and A Boy in Winter

‘Seiffert writes short, fast narratives about the big historical events that have shaped our time’ – The Times

To be truly alive means having to make choices.
To be truly alive is also, quite simply, to love.

Northern Germany, 1945. Dead of night and dead of winter, a boy sees strangers – forced labourers – fleeing across the heathland: shawls and skirts in the snowfall. The end days are close, war brings risk and chance, and Benno is witness to something he barely understands.

Later, when peace finally arrives in his small town, the adults close ranks, closing their mouths and minds to the winter’s events. Benno swallows his own secret about the women workers, keeping it even from Freya, his schoolyard companion.

But with peace come soldiers – English this time – and Red Cross staff officers. Ruth is on her first posting from London, and among the refugees she is given charge of are children – Sasha and Yeva – waiting and waiting for word of their mother. Where could she be now?

For Benno, too, questions are circling. Freya has heard whispers – about the camp and that snow night and the strangers – enough to be wondering about Benno and his silence. When is an act of kindness an act of betrayal?