This novel centers on the conflicting ideologies in Central Europe during the 1930s and the resulting conflicts during the Second World War. Favel Steiger is caught up in the passion and betrayal of Czech politics. A gifted young man, he is sent to the Soviet Union for training, where he becomes a member of the Communist Party. Arriving back in Czechoslovakia in 1938, he is caught in the German occupation of the Sudetenland and becomes a member of the SS. Trapped in Germany, it is perhaps inevitable that his corps becomes part of the Sixth Army, which is trapped at Stalingrad. This remarkable and epic story records the degradations visited upon the populations of middle Europe as the war grinds bitterly and brutally to its conclusion.

Denis Ratcliffe is the author of Second Chances.