With her husband away fighting a futile war Helen, her three children and her elderly parents struggle to survive every single day. The Nazi Regime is oppressive and brutal. As war rages on, food is scarce, and their stamina wavers. When their town faces its final battle, they escape to Hermann’s Ruhe, a small cottage in the hills surrounding the town of Wildenheim. Hermann’s Ruhe, a place of quietude, is their refuge. From their front porch, they watch in horror the relentless bombardment of their town until its surrender a week later. Hermann’s Ruhe is their sanctuary, but their safety is deceptive. They are forced to flee Hermann’s Ruhe running for their lives while being chased by bullets. At a nearby village, they find shelter in a schoolhouse already crammed with people. Barricaded and cut off from the world they spend eight days under the most primitive conditions until the final defeat of Wildenheim. Celebrating their freedom from fear and death, they soon discover that chaos accompanies the invasion by the allies. Each day presents new crises, but Helen vows she will do anything to keep her family alive. ForeWord Clarion Review FICTION Hermann's Ruhe Karin Harrison CreateSpace 978-1-45642218-9 Five Stars (out of Five) "I don't know about you sometimes. You have gotten very hard," Rosa Schmidt tells her daughter Helen when an American Army officer wants to rent the family's cottage, which is named Hermann's Ruhe. With her husband Fritz off to war, Helen must protect their three children as they try to survive the horrors of World War II and the early days of the Allied occupation. Karin Harrison's novel begins in Wildenheim, Germany, in the spring of 1945, as the family once again rushes to the bomb shelter to escape an air raid. Helen's parents, Hermann and Rosa, share an apartment with her and the three children. Paul is fourteen years old, Bessie is nine, and Anne is four. Together, this multigenerational family must cope with the harsh living conditions and near starvation brought on by years of war. The family's wholesale textile business has long ago been destroyed. Even though they are required to hang a photo of Adolph Hitler in their home, they risk their lives by their refusal to openly support him. As the Allied troops march closer to Wildenheim, Hermann announces that they must flee their home for Hermann's Ruhe (ruhe means quietude). The small, rustic cottage in the mountains above Wildenheim was built as a family haven. During the next week, they look down on the valley and watch the invasion. When their city falls, Hermann says they must leave the cottage. They head to the tiny town of Wasserdorf and spend the next seven days in the local schoolhouse with all of the village's residents. When the family receives news that the war has ended, they decide to return to their home. There, they face near starvation and untold hardships as war-torn Germany is slowly occupied by Allied troops. Throughout the story readers witness the growth, strength, and courage of each family member. Helen, for example, experiences fear, anger, resentment, and hatred even as the American troops show kindness and fairness. Her journey to forgiveness is often slowed by her strong maternal instincts. During it all, she longs for word from her husband. Harrison writes with an understanding of the human heart. Her characters come to life as their future is challenged. Hermann's Ruhe is filled with the details of a life that most readers will find unimaginable: "She scraped together meals from the most bizarre sources for her family. Rosa was an expert on botany and herbage and made daily excursions into the nearby forest, which yielded mushrooms, berries, nuts, and all kinds of odd-shaped plants that were cooked into soups and stews." Harrison has created a fictional story that chronicles the real-life misery heaped upon ordinary people when war destroys the necessities of life and all that people hold dear. She presents a view of the unspoken heroes who survive through extraordinary courage and hope. Pat McGrath Avery -- ForeWord Clarion Review, July 17, 2011 Karin Harrison was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1960. In 2003 she left a successful career as an optician to return to college and concentrate on her writing. Her short stories have been published in books of anthology, literary journals and on line. Hermann's Ruhe is her first novel. Karin Harrison lives in Bel Air, Maryland.