Smith recalls his time as a journalist in Berlin as the Nazis consolidated their power and World War II began.

‘A mesmerising story of love and hope...the best book that I have read this year’ Penny, Reader Review The most heartbreaking historical fiction novel you will read this year from the USA Today bestseller!

An American foreign correspondent finds herself in love, and in danger, in this novel that “presents startlingly vivid images of life in Hitler’s Europe” (The New York Times). Rose Manon grew up in the mountains of Nevada, and is now working as a journalist in New York. In 1935, she is awarded her dream job: foreign correspondent. Posted to Paris, she is soon entangled in romance, an unsolved murder, and the desperation of a looming war. Assigned to the Berlin desk, Manon is forced to grapple with her hidden identity as a Jew, the mistrust of her lover, and an unwelcome visitor on the eve of Kristallnacht. And on the day before World War II is declared, she must choose who will join her on the last train to Paris . . . This carefully researched historical novel reads like a suspense thriller, and interweaves real-life figures into the story, offering “a poignant glimpse into the tensions and anxieties of prewar Europe” (Kirkus Reviews). “WWII enthusiasts may appreciate this quieter evocative look at a much-examined era.” —Publishers Weekly

The Last Train To Berlin tells the story of a family whose roots date to the time of Charlemagne. It tells of the family's struggles with the Vikings quest for land in a far-away place near-encounter with Napoleon during the course of le Grande Armee's invasion of Russia members' service in the Great War and, finally, the book tells, in detail of the family's dangerous tribulations during World War II. Rife with historically accurate detail, the book examines the two major forces that swept across the European landscape: ---the 1939 German invasion, annexation, and occupation of Poland with its stultifying and numbing oppression and then ---the horrific 1945 counter-sweep by the vengeful Russian Red Army. The book has received solid 5-Star reviews.

When Margarete Dos moved with her family to Berlin on the eve of World War II, she and her younger brother were blindly ushered into a generation of Hitler Youth. Like countless citizens under Hitler’s regime, Margarete struggled to understand what was happening to her country. Later, as a nurse for the German Red Cross, she treated countless young soldiers—recruited in the eleventh hour to fight a losing battle—they would die before her eyes as Allied bombs racked her beloved city. Yet, her deep humanity, intelligence, and passion for life—which sparkles in every sentence of her memoir—carried Margarete through to war’s end. But just when she thought the worst was over, and she and her mother were on a train headed to Sweden, they were suddenly rerouted deep into Russia… This powerful account draws back the curtain on a piece of history that has been largely overlooked—the nightmare that millions of German civilians suffered, simply because they were German. That Margarete survived to tell her tale so vividly and courageously is a gift to us all.

Ayse Kulin is a clever writer. She draws the reader into the story of the life and loves of a Turkish family in wartime, and by the time the reader realizes that she has also cranked up the tension with a rescue plot, it is too late to put the book down unfinished.