Overview

The story of a young Hungarian woman Eszter and her baby Eva who, by an extraordinary twist of fate, escape the horror of the mass murders being committed within the Birkenau extermination camp in WW2 as they are about to enter there. And of the lives they live following this reprieve. The SS guard who allowed them to escape, Peter Leahy, falls in love with Eszter and goes to find her in war-torn Budapest. They are separated again by the return of Eszter's husband, but never lose their love for one another, living the rest of their lives unaware of the other's continued feelings. After fleeing the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, Eva grows into a famous medical researcher into eye disease and eventually uncovers the sad truth that her mother Eszter and Peter both lived out their lives regretting their lost love of each other, before she too dies at the age of seventy after becoming blind. 'You may consider me naïve', the author asked himself, after having been very moved by his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial, 'but what if one, just one, of the prisoners who arrived on the death train had had the chance to escape? What would they have made of the life this reprieve had given them?'

Full Product Details

9781911593713

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Jeremy Bending spent his life as a hospital doctor and consultant physician. During that time, in addition to writing numerous medical and scientific papers, he continued to write fiction and stories. Some of these were brought together in his book A Listening Doctor, published in 2018. His first novel, In the Shadows of the Birch Trees, tells the story of a young Hungarian woman Eszter who, by an extraordinary twist of fate, escapes with her baby Eva from the horror of the mass killings taking place in WW2, in Birkenau, as they are about to enter the extermination camp. The story of their lives following this reprieve – and that of the SS guard Peter Leahy who allowed them to escape – includes the flight of Eszter and Eva from Budapest before the Soviet invasion in 1956, and the life Eva makes for herself subsequently. Eva meets up with Peter many years later and discovers that her mother and he both lived their lives regretting their lost love of each other. At the age of seventy, now an eminent researcher into eye disease, Eva herself goes blind and dies following a fall.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available