Ronald McQueen

The War and Hannah Thaller Ronald McQueen

As a young girl growing up in Innsbruck, Hannah is thrilled by the sights and sounds of the new Nazi era, but she is unprepared for what is to follow. In a story which takes her from the Hitler Youth to the German Luftwaffe, Hannah finally ends the war with her grandparents in the tiny alpine town of Lienz. But fate has not finished with Hannah as thousands of displaced Cossack soldiers and refugees descend on the town, fleeing Tito and the Red Army. In desperation the town elders beg the Allies to occupy the town, but rather than liberation this act triggers one of the last tragedies of the war. Hannah is a sequel to Kaiserjaeger and sees the return of many of the original characters, twenty-eight years on. The events first seen in Cossack are also finally brought together in an act of betrayal hidden for decades after. This is a small story, but like most small stories, it is part of a much larger one. This is the story of Hannah Thaller's war.