"Against all expectations Marcel Féron has made a "normal" life in a bucolic French suburb in the Ardennes. But on May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, this timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the "Fate" that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark- haired girl, whose accent is "neither Belgian nor German," and who "seemed foreign to everything around her." As the mystery of Anna's identity is gradually revealed, Marcel leaps from the heights of an exhilarating freedom to the depths of a terrifying responsibility-- one that will lead him to a blood-chilling choice."
""Restored to print for the first time in more than forty years, this masterpiece of psychological suspense tells the tale of Marcel Féron--a poor man who, against all odds, has made a 'normal' life in a bucolic French village in the Ardennes. But one spring day in 1940, the German army invades France, and he must abandon his home and confront the fate that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing Nazis. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark-haired girl, whose accent is 'neither Belgian nor German,' and who 'seemed foreign to everything around her.'"--P. [4] of cover."