A powerful combination of historic detail, timeless narrative and action-packed plot. The author places three teenagers, one American, one British and the other German, at the centre of the story in the lead up to the 11th day of the 11th month at 11am. But can each of them find the strength, bravery and understanding within themselves in order to get back safely to their homelands?
If you're on the look out for a nail-biting, page-turning thriller - a junior le Carre - then this is for you.
Set during the final 24 hours before the armistice at 11 a.m. on 11th November 1918, the story follows a German storm trooper, an American airman and a British Tommy. Their destinies converge during the death throes of the first ever conflict to spread across the globe. War becomes incredibly personal as nationality and geography cease to matter to each of these teenagers on the Western Front, and friendship becomes the defining aspect of their encounter. Two of them will live; one of them will die before the following morning.
Praise for Auslander: A breakthrough into the top league for Dowswell, a hugely impressive thriller set during the Second World War ... There will be many adults sneakily borrowing this from their children The Bookseller Auslander is a superlative, at times almost agonisingly compelling, piece of historical fiction ... The climactic escape to freedom is pure muck-sweat tension Financial Times Doswell is one of the best new writers of historical fiction for children ... [Auslander] steps outside the victim culture of novels such as those by Morris Gleitzman and comes close to classics such as The Silver Sword. Admirers of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas should look at this novel as a model of imaginative sympathy The Times
Author
About Paul Dowswell
Paul Dowswell has worked in publishing for over twenty years. He went freelance
in 1999 after eight years with Usborne, where he was a senior editor.
Before that he worked for Time-Life, BBC Books, the Science Museum and
the National Sound Archive.
History is his specialist subject
but he also enjoys writing about natural history, science, geography,
in fact almost anything, apart from golf and mechanical engineering. He
has a shamefully encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music, and have
recently begun presenting occasional music programmes on local radio
station WCR 101.8 FM.
He has written over 60 books for UK
publishers. Most of them have been published in the United States,
Commonwealth countries, Europe and elsewhere.
