A Light Beyond the Trenches, Alan Hlad
A Light Beyond the Trenches, Alan Hlad
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A Light Beyond the Trenches
An Unforgettable Novel of World War 1

Author: Alan Hlad

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 12 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2022

Synopsis

April 1916, Germany: Anna Zeller, whose fiancé, Bruno, is fighting on the western front, works as a nurse at an overcrowded hospital in Oldenburg, trying to comfort men broken in body and spirit. But during a visit from Dr. Stalling, the director of the Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association, she witnesses a rare spark of optimism: as a German shepherd guides a battle-blinded soldier over a garden path, Dr. Stalling is inspired with an idea—to train dogs as companions for sightless veterans.

Anna convinces Dr. Stalling to let her work at his new guide dog training school. Some of the dogs that arrive are themselves veterans of war, including Nia, a German shepherd with trench-damaged paws. Anna brings the ailing Nia home and secretly tends and trains her. In Max Benesch, a Jewish soldier blinded by chlorine gas at the front, Nia finds her person.

War has taken Max's sight, his fiancée, and his hopes of being a composer. Yet despite all he's given for his country, the tide of anti-Semitism at home is rising, and Max encounters it firsthand in one of the school's trainers. Still, through Anna's prompting, he rediscovers his passion for music. But as Anna discovers more about the conflict's escalating brutality—and Bruno's role in it—she realizes how impossible it will be for any of them to escape the war unscathed . . .

About Alan Hlad

Alan Hlad is the internationally bestselling author of historical fiction novels inspired by real people and events of WWI and WWII, including The Book Spy, Churchill's Secret Messenger, A Light Beyond the Trenches, and the USA Today and IndieBound bestseller The Long Flight Home. A member of the Historical Novel Society, Literary Cleveland, Novelitics, and the Akron Writers' Group, he is a frequent speaker at conferences, literary events, and book club gatherings. He currently divides his time between Ohio and Portugal.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Karren on February 27, 2022

Anna Zeller works as a nurse in a busy hospital in Oldenburg, here she meets her fiancée Bruno Wahler and he’s recovered and fighting on the western front. By 1916, the excitement of the war is a distant memory in Germany and now everyone's enduring terrible suffering and hardship. The British have......more

Goodreads review by Marilyn (not getting notifications) on May 14, 2022

4.5 strong stars for this very well written and impeccably researched historical fiction novel. A Light Beyond the Trenches was the third book I had read by Alan Hlad and found it equally if not more engaging and enlightening as his past novels. I listened to the audiobook that was pleasantly perfor......more

Goodreads review by Shirley on February 13, 2022

Beautifully written and well researched story about the German side of WWI. Readers are taken through the years during the war and a year after the war ended. I thought the story was educational as the writer wrote about the start of a seeing eye dog training center for German Soldiers who had been......more

Goodreads review by Kellie on May 05, 2022

There is so much that I can say about this amazing, beautiful and emotionally moving book, however I will attempt to make this review as short as possible because of all of you who want to read it! I learned so very much about WW1 that I never knew before. I learned about food rations, what people a......more

Goodreads review by Shirley on March 20, 2022

Guide Dogs for Veterans An inspiring story of the start of a guide dog school for blinded veterans during WWI and the German Shepherd dogs trained to guide them. This provided these brave men with a way to regain some of their freedom and former lives. Anna is a nurse at the hospital in Oldenburg Ger......more

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