Just finished reading The Puppet Boy of Warsaw by Eva Weaver. Compelling reading. Both heart-breaking and heart-warming, it’s a history-based fiction which follows the stories (including through later family generations) of a teenage Jewish boy, Mika, in the Warsaw ghetto in the second world war and a young German soldier who made a connection with him, Max. It offers no answers or solutions, but, to me, is a wonderful portrait of multi-dimensional humanity.

It isn’t a totally happy story (how can any story set during that period be?) but I found it absolutely enriching and an important reminder of the turning of fates, and the strength of the human spirit. I’d totally recommend it – probably mid-teens onwards. Beautiful book.