No Foreign Sky

Book excerpt: No Foreign Sky is an intense and compelling tale of love and war set against the savage backdrop of World War II's Eastern Front. Paul Heinrich, Olympic athlete and career soldier, leads a Panzer company spearheading Barbarossa, Hitler's doomed invasion of the Soviet Union. Early victories take him to Kiev, where he falls in love with Vera, a beguiling medical student and Ukrainian nationalist. Leaving her, Paul leads the German army deeper into Russia. Brutal winters and bitter resistance sap the German will and strength. But they press onward-to Stalingrad and disaster. In retreat, Paul witnesses the scope and savagery of the Holocaust and the atrocities committed by his countrymen. As he faces his growing uncertainties and doubts, Paul's odyssey evokes the full horror and valor of war in the East. Finally, he must search for redemption amid conflicting loyalties to his sacred oath, his moral code, and the woman he loves. Teeming with vivid characters both fictional and real, No Foreign Sky relates true stories of "that time, that place," their tragic power to shape the past and the future, and their relevance to modern times.