Silence in the Desert

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Pub Date 28 Apr 2018 | Archive Date 3 Jan 2018

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Description

Silence in the Desert is a psychological thriller set against the backdrop of the Second World War. 
Four young people are caught up on opposing sides, yet bound to one another by pre-war friendship, and new found love. 
Henri’s family sends a son from each generation to military college for a commission into the French Foreign Legion. As he fulfils this tradition and the Second World War breaks out, Henri is faced with a dilemma which will lead to an adventure few could match in that conflict. 
Leo is set on joining Goering’s new Luftwaffe, but his war leads him into the secret world of Signals Intelligence. The suspension of the moral law in time of turmoil raises issues which he struggles to reconcile with his conscience and the ethics of his upbringing. 
Bill is South African, a talented young rugby player at the same school as Henri and Leo, and heads for Cambridge on an RAF scholarship. His ultimate test comes from a least expected direction and a woman who has already suffered terribly. 
Elisabeth’s home was Munich until her father becomes a professor at the Pasteur Institute, and she starts her own medical training in Paris. Her crucial decision to return to Germany clashes with the circumstances of her family and the legacy of its past. Alone and threatened, Elisabeth escapes to the deserts of North Africa and to the man who will change her life.
Silence in the Desert is a psychological thriller set against the backdrop of the Second World War. 
Four young people are caught up on opposing sides, yet bound to one another by pre-war...

A Note From the Publisher

David Longridge’s travel and finance career in France and Germany enabled him to illustrate how the suspension of the moral law in wartime conflicts with the conscience of young people in those countries and the ethics of their upbringing. David’s previous book, In Youth, in Fear, in War is published by Matador.

David Longridge’s travel and finance career in France and Germany enabled him to illustrate how the suspension of the moral law in wartime conflicts with the conscience of young people in those...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781788033954
PRICE US$4.99 (USD)
PAGES 200

Average rating from 6 members


Featured Reviews

Silence in the Desert is an excellent novel covering the battles in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Africa from 1941 into 1945 through the eyes of three students. Henri de Rochefort is the son of an English woman and a Frenchman, raised in France but being educated in England. Henri's dream is to become a member of the French Foreign Legion as his forefathers before him. Leo Beckendorf is the son of a German and an English woman, also taking some of his education in England but raised in Germany and feeling he is destined to fly for the German Luftwaffe. Bill Lomberg is British but was raised in Africa and his dream, too, is to fly. Adding their viewpoint we have Benedictine monk Dom Brendan Rooker OSB, or Rookie as the boys call him, who is house master at their English school, Saint Gregory's College. And Theresa Kruger, a renamed German Jewess, a trained nurse hiding in plain sight nursing the wounded for the Free French forces.

These earlier battles fought in WWII are not as extensively covered in fact or fiction as are those later battles in Europe. It is good to see them brought to our attention. We see the same names over and over - WWI, WWII, and over the last twenty years. Libya. Greece. Beirut. Egypt. Benghazi. Cairo. The Sinai. Gaza.

This is a story told very well. David Longridge is an author I will add to my list.

I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, David Longridge, and Matador an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd. in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

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