Brigitte Roick

Moonchild: a Novel Brigitte Roick

Silesia, Germany, 1938. Four-year-old Ingrid's mother has suddenly died. The child's ideal world collapses. Her father, a successful businessman, breaks off all contact with the child's maternal grandmother. Why? He becomes a member of the Nazi party and supports his two older daughters' activities in the Hitler Youth Movement. He re-marries - a pretty young woman of working class status. Ingrid's eldest sister hates her. Tears and turmoil in the family are the result. When war breaks out, news about the progress of the military forces become a daily concern: The stepmother's three brothers are fighting at the front. When, in 1945, the Red Army invades Silesia, the family is forced to flee. Ingrid doesn't realize that she will never see her childhood home again. But the most fundamental shock is yet to come. After surrender the father reveals a secret that sends the children's emotions into a tailspin. A tragedy becomes unavoidable. Ingrid tells her story with the innocence and curiosity only found in childhood. Will the ties to her family and the unquestioning love for her father enable Ingrid to emotionally survive the horrors of the Nazi regime and the shocking secret her father reveals?