Irene Magers

Last Train from Berlin Irene Magers

Last Train From Berlin serves up a surprising and haunting conclusion to the von Renz dynasty, the remarkable Berlin family that readers first came to know in Coach From Warsaw, followed by Night Crossing to Athens. In this final installment of the trilogy ancestral ties and age-old traditions are pitted against a ruthless regime at war. Fighting on the Russian front, Fritz is facing the Soviets and a bloody, bitter winter, while his young family in Berlin tries to survive the constant barrage of devastating bomb attacks. Death, starvation, and Nazi interrogations are daily realities but escape from the city is not an option; the countryside is flooded with desperate refugees. When Lisbet loses her home, she is left with no choice but to take shelter with Dorrit hiding in plain sight from the Nazis and safeguarding a secret that, if known, would become their combined death sentence. Salvation materializes from unexpected quarters. But the price is high. Someone must risk everything. With Herr Hitler's signature on a military deferment in his pocket and believing that he is taking his wife and children out of harm's way, Max abruptly leaves Berlin, driving south toward Turkey and, hopefully, a safe haven at his former archaeological excavation site. Traveling through foreign, hazardous rebel-occupied territory and crossing borders before they close, he forges headlong into a trap, placing his family in mortal danger. Last Train From Berlin is an unforgettable Berlin story with journeys stretching south to Yugoslavia and north to Denmark. Irene Magers once again proves that she is an extraordinary storyteller, sweeping us into a maelstrom of shattered lives set against the backdrop of a burning continent where rules are discarded and survival is bought and sold. In the midst of the madness and deadly chaos, the reader will be profoundly moved and uplifted by the love and self-sacrifice that beats in the human heart at a time when suffering is at its worst.