Red Shadow

Russia, 1940. Fifteen-year-old Misha’s life is about to transform when his father is offered a job in Stalin’s inner circle. They move into a luxurious apartment in the Kremlin, but doubts about the glorious new Russia quickly surface. Misha realises that the secret police can do whatever they like. His own mother is arrested and sent to prison, but Misha and his father daren’t complain. Then as German troops advance on Moscow, the atmosphere in the Kremlin ignites. Misha and a friend find themselves at the heart of a battle against the mighty state in this powerful evocation of one of the most turbulent places and periods of the 20th century, told by a master storyteller.

Review

Dowswell is one of the best new writers of historical fiction for children . . . [Auslõnder] steps outside the victim culture of novels such as those by Morris Gleitzman and comes close to classics such as The Silver Sword. Admirers of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas should look at this novel as a model of imaginative sympathy (Praise for AUSL├äNDER: The Times)

Auslõnder is a superlative, at times almost agonisingly compelling, piece of historical fiction . . . The climactic escape to freedom is pure muck-sweat tension (Praise for AUSL├äNDER: Financial Times)

A breakthrough into the top league for Dowswell, a hugely impressive thriller set during the Second World War . . . There will be many adults sneakily borrowing this from their children (Praise for AUSLÄNDER: The Bookseller)

Book Description

The gripping story of one boy trapped within Stalin’s circle of trust, as Germany prepares to invade Russia. A shocking, timely thriller of dictators and regimes, by the award-winnng author of Auslõnder