What happens when the sweet magic of childhood mixes with the grimness of war? Author Erika Madden’s childhood experiences in World War II Germany serve as inspiration for her poignant and suspenseful novel, Year of the Angels.

Through the eyes of Lisl, a young German girl, Madden paints vivid images of the ever-present hunger, fear, and quiet desperation that defined village life during wartime Germany.

The year is 1944 and the Allied Forces are advancing upon the ancient farming community of Mainbernheim. Lisl’s father has gone away to war, and her pregnant mother struggles to maintain a normal family life for her children amid air raids and food shortages. In the dead of winter, with heating fuel in short supply, the children search for discarded coal along the railroad tracks. The family is left homeless when the Allied Forces occupy their home. Always the dreamer, Lisl copes in her own way. She and her brother Dieter find magic and comfort in the beauty of nature.

Year of the Angels is a powerful affirmation of the resilience of the human spirit. Its softly written first-hand accounts of historical events are rare gems for any history enthusiast.

Erika is a fifteen-year member of the Hard-Nosed Zealots Stanwood/Camano critique group in Washington and regularly attends the Write on the Sound Writers' Conference.