Books For The Road - Daisies Are Forever by Liz Tolsma

Daisies Are Forever by Liz Tolsma is a WWII story with an intriguing point of view. The characters include a n escaped British POW, an American of German descent who finds herself caught in the battle to save her family, and several other perspectives of the conflict between the Germans and the Red Army as they advanced into Berlin.

Gisela Cramer must flee the small Prussian town of Heiligenbeil and take with her two young cousins whose mother stays behind with Gisela's  grandfather. Along the way she helps a British POW and collects others, all of whom she is trying to save from the horrors of war. The story intensifies as it moves along culminating in the group finding refuge in the basement of a Berlin apartment building destroyed by the allied bombers.

Tolsma has used the war experiences of two women to tell the story. The escape over a frozen lake with planes shooting the refugees was an actual event in the life of Ruth Sabine Hildegard Lippert when she was seventeen. The second half of her book is based on the stories told by her aunt, Lillian Tolsma. She melds the two women's experiences into one story that is difficult to put down.

This would certainly be a good book to distract you on a long plane flight--especially if you can't sleep on a plane the way my husband can. High on my list of recommended reading.