Horst Bienek, born in that strange nowhere/everywhere land of Silesia, tells the story of a typical family of the region, of Polish and German origins, at the very dawn of the Second World War... late August, 1939. The family lives in Germany, a few miles from the Polish border. Their town is rife with German soldiers, war is in the air, and life goes on. Bienek is masterful with his characters. They become so real that they come off the page and engage the reader in both their personal sagas and the great tides that are starting to sweep across the continent. Christians, Jews; Poles, Germans; civilians, soldiers; men, women; adults and children... all are here, all are living their complicated personal lives. And the shadow is over the land. This is the first of a four-part series. The other three parts, which follow this one, are all seriously out of print. They need to be reprinted, if not on paper, then electronically. Bienek is a powerful author who pays his reader many times over with a compelling story set in a critical place and time of history.