RELUCTANT HEROES
Young Trudy Heppel seizes the opportunity to join the Hitler Youth as a means to escape her life of poverty in the back streets of Hamburg. She quickly sees the brutality and corruption of National Socialism but it takes the violence of war to facilitate what she thinks is her escape, only for her to find herself caught up in more danger.Six hundred kilometres away the poison of Nazification seeps into an idyllic Austrian village. Hitler’s annexation of the country is welcomed by most Austrians, but Nazi ruthlessness forcibly separates, friends, families, and neighbours. One family and their friends have every reason to fear and despise the invasion, and yet resistance seems futile. Somehow family bonds, love and humour has to be maintained in order to survive. Despite this, young Johan Breitner and his closest friend find themselves as reluctant conscripts in Hitler’s army and forced to fight in the hell of the Eastern Front. Caught in the turmoil of an increasingly savage war, the future for both Trudy Heppel and Johan Breitner hangs in the balance Reluctant Heroes is the sequel to G. L. Vernon’s highly acclaimed debut novel “Fallen Hero” 13557.
