A Stranger at Home

Denis Ratcliff’s debut novel is a gripping story of conflicting ideologies in Central Europe. During the Thirties Favel Steiger is caught up in the passion and betrayal of Czech politics. A gifted young man, he is sent to the Soviet Union for training, where he becomes a member of the Communist Party. Arriving back in Czechoslavakia in 1938 he is caught in the German occupation of the Sudetenland and becomes a member of the SS. Trapped in Germany it is perhaps inevitable that his corps becomes part of the 6th Army Group which is trapped at Stalingrad. Can Favel translate himself from SS officer to Soviet Communist Party member as the battle lines ebb and flow? A Stranger at Home is a panoramic novel stretching from a childhood in England to the degradations visited upon the populations of middle Europe as the war grinds bitterly and brutally to its conclusion. The remarkable position of its central character is almost too bizarre to be believed; and yet the story is a true one written from the memories of the real Favel. As a record of what fate can deal out it is not to be missed.