On a hot summer afternoon in 1944 SS troops wiped out an entire French village. 644 men women & children died that day. Just one child survived. This book tells the story of what happened in Oradour & imagines what drove both the SS officer who ordered the massacre & the seven-year-old boy who escaped it. Powerful moving & almost unbearably tense this book weaves the truth about what happened to the people in Oradour into a powerful fictional story centred on two characters: the plucky inspirational seven-year-old Alfred Fournier refugee & resident of Oradour & the hot-headed power-hungry SS commander who shattered his world & changed his life for ever Major Gustav Dietrich. As their two worlds collide we gain a fascinating insight into the extremes & contradictions of human behaviour & emotion. With a twist in the tale this is a story which leaves the reader surprised inspired & profoundly moved.