A courageous, emotionally gripping new novel (already sold in 18 countries worldwide, and soon to be made into a major motion picture) from an award-winning author and screenwriter: set in Germany during the tumultuous year following the end of World War II, the profoundly moving story of two families, one house, and love grown from hate.

Hamburg, 1946. While thousands wander the rubble, lost and homeless, Colonel Lewis Morgan, charged with overseeing the rebuilding of this devastated city and the de-Nazification of its defeated people, is stationed in a grand house on the River Elbe. He is waiting for the arrival of his wife Rachael--still grieving for their eldest son, one of the war's many casualties--and their only surviving son, Edmund. But rather than force the owners of the house, a German widower and his rebellious daughter, out onto the streets, Lewis insists that the two families live together. In this charged atmosphere, both parents and children will be forced to confront their true selves as enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal, to their deepest desires, their fiercest loyalties, and the transforming power of forgiveness.