Skeletons at the Feast / Chris Bohjalian / 360 pages

This story takes place in January 1945 in the last few months of World War II.  It tells the story of a Prussian family trying to evacuate from their home near the Russian front to Germany to reach the British and American lines.  With them is Callum, a Scottish prisoner of war who has been assigned to work on their farm.  Anna is the family's eighteen year old daughter.  Callum and Anna have fallen in love.  Soon after the family leaves home the father and son leave to join the German fight against the Russians.  That leaves Anna, her mother, and little brother to make their way on their own.  Soon they are joined by Manfred, a twenty-six year old Wehrmacht corporal.  Unknown by the family Manfred is really Uri Singer, a Jew who escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz.  The story is intense and gives the reader the feeling of how the experience must have felt.