A stunning tour de force of a novel based on the true story of a fourteen-year-old boyâs harrowing experience fleeing a Hitler youth camp in the last days of the Second World War.
At the start of the war, Max Bernot lives with his sister and parents in Lauterbach, Saarland, a narrow strip of territory between the French and German defence lines. His parents, Anton and Marguerite, do their best to shield Max and his sister, Anna, from Nazi violence, but in late 1944, their beloved godfather is executed in their garden by the SS. Max is shipped off to a Hitler Youth Camp in Bavaria but when he is called to fight for the Volkssturm. Instead, he flees. His mission: to return home and tell his mother the truth about his godfatherâs murder.
Unbeknownst to Max, his mother is trapped in the German interior, coerced into working for a fanatical Nazi officer. Desperate to escape and reunite her family, Marguerite must first protect Anna from the sinister attentions of their captor, who could hold information on Maxâs whereabouts, even as Allied planes circle closer.
Deftly interweaving the wartime stories of Max and Marguerite, The End and the Beginning maps the loss of innocence for a generation of children raised in the shadow of the Reich and follows the fate of one family, neither wholly French nor entirely German, who find themselves on the wrong side whichever way they turn.
âA heartbreaking, beautifully told story. . . A sad, poignant tale of two young boys caught up in Hitlerâs machine, risking their lives to get away from the panic of the last days of World War II. K. J. Holdom has crafted a stunning story of this time, brilliantly weaving dual time periods and the tragic consequences when families are torn apart.â
â" HEATHER MORRIS, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz
âTracing one familyâs impossible quest to reunite amid the chaos and anarchy of the crumbling Third Reich, The End and the Beginning is a tale of devotion and faith, of lost innocence and grit, proving ultimately that heroism is not only found on battlefields but in the hearts of ordinary children. In superb, cinematic prose, K. J. Holdom depicts the unforgiving cost of war but also our boundless capacity to endure, to remember, to hope. I adored every page.â
â" ROXANNE VELETZOS, internationally bestselling author of The Girl They Left Behind
âThe End and the Beginning is a rare tale, beautifully told, of a chapter in history that had to wait its turn to be written. As German forces rolled over their presumed enemies, they rolled over their own people too, many of them innocent, many of them children. This is the story of a family shattered, never to be made whole again, either physically or emotionally. K. J. Holdom has given us a powerfulâ"and today, especially contemporary, especially poignantâ"reminder that war has no victors. An extraordinary and brilliant achievement.â
â" JOSEPH KERTES, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Gratitude
