Love among the Ruins

Hier getauscht und einmal gelesen, Ecken und Kanten leicht angestoßen, leicht schiefgelesen, Rillen im Buchrücken

At 22, the war is over for RAF serviceman Harry Leslie Smith — the now 92-year-old activist and author of the acclaimed Harry’s Last Stand — but the battle for love and hope rages on.

Stationed in occupied Hamburg, a city physically and emotionally ripped apart by Allied bombing, and determined to escape the grinding poverty of his Yorkshire youth, Harry unexpectedly finds a reason to stay: a young German woman by the name of Friede. As their love develops, they must face both German suspicion and British disapproval of relations with ‘the enemy’.

Harry’s ardent, straight-from-the-heart memoir brings to life a city reduced to rubble, populated with refugees, black marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers. It’s a unique snapshot of a terrible period in Europe’s history, and a passionate love letter to a city, to a woman, and to life itself.

k.A.