The day Roberto and his friend Samuele are rounded up by German soldiers and put on a train marks both a beginning and an end. The boys have now become part of the war, providing forced labor for the Nazis at various work camps deep inside German territory. And it’s the ending to all they’ve known — before their lives as children in Venice, their innocence. For Roberto, the present is unbearable — backbreaking work, near starvation, and protecting Samuele’s secret that, if discovered, would mean death for both boys. Escape is Roberto’s only hope, but the Russian winter is upon the land — and any hope seems remote.
- ISBN: 9780525458425
- Author: Napoli, Donna Jo
- Published: 1997, Dutton Juvenile
- Themes: escaping, Hardship, Holocaust, Jew, Nazi, Survival, Venice, World War II
- Descriptors: Germany, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Italy, Russia
- No. of pages: 224