Rust and Bone: A Novel

Part coming-of-age story and part family drama, set against the harsh backdrop of World War II Ukraine and Germany.

In the winter of 1945, a German village deep inside Ukraine burns under Russian assault. Young Jakob Fritsch, torn from his family, is forced onto a cattle car bound for a work camp where death looms. When a Stuka’s bomb derails the train, Jakob escapes the smoking wreckage alongside two untrustworthy survivors. They forge through snow-laden wilderness, hunted by soldiers and partisans.

A tragic turn forces Jakob to go on alone. Starving and freezing, he braves the perilous countryside of Poland en route to Berlin — the only place he can go — which is being torn apart from all sides.

Far away in the shattered outskirts of Berlin, Frida Beckmann lives amid relentless bombing raids and encroaching Soviet forces. With her father in a prison camp and her mother broken by grief, Frida shoulders the weight of her family’s survival. Tested by hardship, betrayal, and loss, she is pushed well beyond her years.

Jakob and Frida navigate their war-torn paths, struggling to survive in a time stripped of mercy — seeking refuge when all the world’s gone mad.