It was not a decision taken lightly, and the future was shrouded in fear and uncertainty. But for their children’s welfare, the Bildmanns and Alexanders of Germany and the Elsigs of Austria had to take this fateful, heart-wrenching step. As war clouds gathered over Europe, these loving parents dispatched their sons, Erich, Karl, Otto, and Kurt, to the relative safety of England, there to be housed among strangers. Soon, however, the ground beneath their feet begins to burn as their British haven becomes a target for Hitler’s Luftwaffe bombers. Together with Miles Benjamin and Joshua King, their newfound English schoolmates, the four European boys are evacuated to the countryside and are taken in by kindhearted farming families. This pastoral setting, remote from the terrifying war that is raging all around, presents challenges of a different sort: How can these religious youngsters retain their ties to the faith imbued in them by their parents, without offending their non-Jewish hosts? How will they cope with the suspicions and hostility of gentile neighbors? And how will these teenagers, really little more than children, survive alone, so far from the place they called ‘home’? In this engrossing historical novel, Sarah Schleimer weaves the actual experiences of those who were part of the “Kindertransport” into the dramatic and shattering events of World War II. Her vivid portrayal of these boys personalizes this momentous era and breathes life into an account of the tragedies and triumphs that took place more than half a century ago.