Love among the ruins

More about the book

At 22, the war is over for RAF serviceman Harry Leslie Smith – author of the acclaimed Harry's Last Stand – but the battle for love and hope rages on.Stationed in occupied Hamburg, a city physically and emotionally ripped apart by Allied bombing, and determined to escape grinding poverty of his Yorkshire youth, Harry unexpectedly finds a reason to stay: a young German woman by the name of Friede.Their love develops uneasily, but gradually they win each other’s trust, Harry taking on the responsibility of finding food for Friede’s near-destitute family. But they must face both German suspicion and British disapproval of relations with ‘the enemy’.Presenting a street-level view of a city reduced to rubble, populated with refugees, black marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers, Love Among the Ruins is a unique snapshot of a terrible period in Europe’s history, a passionate love letter to a city, to a woman, and to life itself.