Berlin, September 1944. Ulrich von Hassell, former ambassador to Italy and a key member of the German Resistance, is executed for his part in an assassination plot against Hitler. In response to the attack, Himmler, leader of the SS, orders the arrest of all the families of the plotters.

In a remote castle in Italy, von Hassell's beloved daughter, Fey, is discovered just when she thought she had escaped the Nazi net. She is arrested and her two sons, aged three and two are seized by the SS. Fey has no idea of her children's fate as she is dragged away on a terrifying journey to the darkest corners of a Europe savaged by war.

Moving from a palazzo in the heart of the Italian countryside to the horrors of Buchenwald, Catherine Bailey tells an extraordinary story of resistance at the heart of the Second World War. The Lost Boys is an illuminating and devastating account of great personal sacrifice, of loss and, above all, of defiance.

 

Catherine Bailey is the author of two bestselling works of twentieth-century history: Black Diamonds and The Secret Rooms. She lives in London.

 

'Remarkable . . . The Lost Boys is a powerful, engrossing story of a journey into the heart of darkness and final escape from it' --- Sunday Times

'Bailey has a knack for bringing characters to life . . . Fascinating' --- Times

'Bailey has an extraordinary talent for bringing history to life and The Lost Boys is as thrilling as any novel' --- Daily Mail

'One of the most harrowing, beautifully written and brilliantly researched books I have read in a very long time' --- Selina Hastings