Ashes: A WW2 historical fiction inspired by true events. A story of friendship, war and courage

Written by Christopher de Vinck

Narrated by Laura Kirman

WINNER OF THE ‘FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR’ AT CRT 2021

Includes an audiobook-exclusive interview with the author discussing his inspiration for Ashes and his family’s history during World War II.

A deeply touching novel about two young women whose differences, which once united them, will tear them apart forever, during Hitler’s Nazi occupation of Belgium and France. Based on true events.

For fans of All The Light We Cannot See and Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Belgium, July 1939: Simone Lyon is the daughter of a Belgium national hero, the famous General Joseph Lyon. Her best friend Hava Daniels, is the eldest daughter of a devout Jewish family. Despite growing up in different worlds, they are inseparable.

But when, in the spring of 1940, Nazi planes and tanks begin bombing Brussels, their resilience and strength are tested. Hava and Simone find themselves caught in the advancing onslaught and are forced to flee.

In an emotionally-charged race for survival, even the most harrowing horrors cannot break their bonds of love and friendship. The two teenage girls will see their innocence fall against the ugly backdrop of a war dictating that theirs was a friendship that should never have been.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harper Inspire
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780310113591

Christopher de Vinck

Christopher de Vinck is a teacher and the author of eleven books and numerous articles and essays for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Reader’s Digest. He delivers speeches on faith, disabilities, fatherhood, and writing, and has been invited to speak at the Vatican. He is the father of three and lives in New Jersey with his wife. His essays on everyday life have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The National Catholic Reporter, and used in high school and college textbooks as samples of good writing. He has won two Christopher Awards, which celebrates authors whose work looks at the ‘highest values of the human spirit’. His essays have been selected three times for ‘Best Column’ by the National Catholic Press Association. His essay The Power of the Powerless praised by, among many others President Ronald Reagan, was selected by Christianity Today as one of the ten ‘Best Biographies and/or Autobiographies’ of this past century, which also included the works of C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, and Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn.

Reviews for Ashes

[doris watson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just couldn't stop listening. Yes my heart was in pain when I listened to what happened to Hava. I just cried for all the lost souls of WWII. We are all one big Nation, we are all living on one planet and we have all the same hopes and dreams. We are all beautiful!
In native culture we use the medecin wheel and all nation are all represented in our whell cause we must learn to be one nation on mother earth..

[Zoelle Maria · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best novel, I guess, about Holocaust in WW2, even it is related to Belgique and somehow France , and in the end an interview with an author who is about 70 years old.

[Karen Chandler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a very well written storyline with believable characters and scenarios. We must never forget what happened to the Jewish people just because they were Jewish.

[Deborah Strange · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read many WWII books. I especially enjoy historical fiction. This was the first one I found about Belgium, and their part in the war which is why I selected it. It is well written and I found my self experiencing a wide range of emotions matching those of the characters…. Fear, anticipation, sorrow, friendship, kindness, grieving