The strong survive

ForeWord Indies Book of the Year Awards | Gold Medal

“The meek shall inherit the earth,” says Julien's pastor father. Under German occupation, the opposite seems pretty clear. There’s no-one Julien admires more than his father—especially since learning of his clandestine activities—but Julien finds his pacifism harder and harder to swallow in a time when Gestapo walk the streets of his town as if they owned it. His brave, quiet town, a fragile fortress where hundreds of Jewish refugees hide, with the collusion of their neighbors, in plain sight—including Julien's best friend.

Including the young woman for whom he’s falling hard, whose parents are deported, who has seen the barbed wire from the inside, and who must never be forced to suffer like that again.

And Julien's father is under threat of arrest and refuses to go into hiding, and a known informer is sniffing round Julien's friends...

There has to be a way to protect them. And Julien's no longer sure if he cares whether it's right or wrong...