Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian (2008)Inspired by a friends grandmothers diary of her escape ahead of the Red Army at the end of World War Two, Chris Bohjalian takes us on a journey across the roads of Germany.
Anna, lives with her wealthy family on a farm in Prussia where they have had a comfortable life during the war due to their Nazi contacts. As the German army is forced to retreat, the Russians now are coming ever closer. Gathering their family, two wagons and their Scottish POW worker Callum, they leave their farm and join the many refugees heading west.
Two other stories connect with theirs, Manfred who is actually an escaped Jew called Uri who fell from a train two years earlier on the way to a camp, is desperately trying to find his family and younger sister. Posing as a German soldier, he escapes from many a desperate situation with the use of his gun.
Cecile is a young French Jewish woman, who after being in a labour camp, is sent with her friends on a forced march ahead of the Russians.
As with all novels of this genre, it causes me to pause, to wonder what I would have done in similar circumstances. 4/5
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