I love reading good books based on historical events. This next year our family is studying the World War I & II time and I am gearing up to teach it. I just received this great book from Shadow Mountain publishing called Winter Sky by Christ Stewart.
This book is a quick, fast paced WWII drama of a young Polish resistance fighter’s escape from the SS. Set against the true-life backdrop of Eastern Poland and the courageous efforts of the “Devil’s Rebels” in the waning months of World War II. This book is sad and at times hard to read what they went though, but it isn’t too intense. It also has a sweet story along side. It is a short book, almost like a short story.
In a bombed-out Polish village during World War II, a young resistance fighter finds that he is suddenly alone and trapped between two opposing armies. He is one of Poland’s “Devil’s Rebels” fighting desperately to save his homeland, but an injury has erased his memory and his only possession is a torn photograph of a couple he assumes are his parents. The woman appears to be holding the hand of a young child whose image has been ripped off. Could this be him?
Caught in the crosshairs of the retreating German army and the advancing Russian forces, the village holds nothing but destruction and despair until a mysterious young woman offers a small glimmer of hope that may represent his last chance – news of a refugee train departing from a nearby town, headed for American installations at the border.
But complications arise when the resistance fighter is betrayed by his own countryman and hunted by German SS officers who are determined to kill him before they retreat. Desperately searching for a home and family he can’t remember, he is persuaded to rescue two children who are doomed to die without his help. But as time runs out, the former rebel is faced with an impossible choice. Standing at the crossroads of saving himself or risking his life for strangers, what would motivate a young man at the brink of salvation to make one more sacrifice?
New York Times Best-selling author Chris Stewart has created a powerful, soul-moving story of compassion and hope against all odds. Chris Stewart is a multiple New York Times bestselling author who has published more than a dozen books, has been selected by the Deseret Book – Book of the Month Club, and has released titles in multiple languages in six countries. He is a world-record-setting Air Force pilot (fastest nonstop flight around the world) and former president and CEO of The Shipley Group, a nationally recognized consulting and training company. Currently, he is a U.S. Congressman representing the 2nd Congressional District in Utah.