A Light Beyond the Trenches

✨ 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 ✨

Thank you Kensington Books for this gifted copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed Hlad’s last publication, 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹’𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿, so I’m really looking forward to his latest work of historical fiction, 𝗔 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 (𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝟯/𝟮𝟵).

𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: By April 1916, the fervor that accompanied war’s outbreak has faded. In its place is a grim reality. Throughout Germany, essentials are rationed. Hope, too, is in short supply. Anna Zeller, whose fiancé, Bruno, is fighting on the western front, works as a nurse at an overcrowded hospital in Oldenburg, trying to comfort men broken in body and spirit. But during a visit from Dr. Stalling, the director of the Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association, she witnesses a rare spark of optimism: as a German shepherd guides a battle-blinded soldier over a garden path, Dr. Stalling is inspired with an idea—to train dogs as companions for sightless veterans.

Anna convinces Dr. Stalling to let her work at his new guide dog training school. Some of the dogs that arrive are themselves veterans of war, including Nia, a German shepherd with trench-damaged paws. Anna brings the ailing Nia home and secretly tends and trains her, convinced she may yet be the perfect guide for the right soldier. In Max Benesch, a Jewish soldier blinded by chlorine gas at the front, Nia finds her person.

War has taken Max’s sight, his fiancée, and his hopes of being a composer. Yet despite all he’s given for his country, the tide of anti-Semitism at home is rising, and Max encounters it first-hand in one of the school’s trainers, who is determined to make Max fail. Still, through Anna’s prompting, he rediscovers his passion for music. But as Anna discovers more about the conflict’s escalating brutality—and Bruno’s role in it—she realizes how impossible it will be for any of them to escape the war unscathed . . .

💬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡?