Silent Battlefields: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: mysterious caller, Hugh Rosen, Silent Battlefields, Hitler Youth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Selig Kruger, once a dedicated Hitler Youth and committed Nazi soldier, confronts his past when he meets Eva, the woman whose life he spared nearly thirty years ago.

She remembered learning from the bear man shortly after the incident that two German soldiers were killed by a third. Perhaps he was the one who took their lives. She believed that if she were ever to find out the answers, now was not the time to deluge him with her emotions and questions.

Her persistent gaze released a rush of memories flooding Selig’s mind. In the secret space of his consciousness he saw a young, frightened girl huddling on the floor of an attic closet. Without even thinking about it Selig placed his index finger vertically against his lips. It was the same gesture Selig had performed twenty-eight years ago on the attic floor of a house in a Polish village.

“It’s really you then?” Eva asked in astonishment.

Selig was stunned at the realization that this was, indeed, the same young girl whose life he had spared. The same girl whose destiny he had obsessed about over almost three decades.

An elegiac tale of regret from both sides of a cataclysmic war. Rosen, a professor and psychotherapist, infuses the narrative with graceful candor and palpable physical and psychological conflicts. The author does not brand any of his convincing characters as villain, martyr or victim, and by weaving together Eva and Selig's parallel lives as saved and savior, he offers pointed, well-drawn insights about war and its terrible, protracted aftermath. A complex blend of memory, cultural identity, the ties that bind us and the ghosts that haunt us.

—Kirkus Discoveries

About the Author

Hugh Rosen is a professor emeritus at Drexel University. He has authored and coedited a total of six nonfiction books. At age seventy, Hugh earned an MA in creative writing from Temple University. Hugh lives in Philadelphia with his two cats, Bandit and the Kid.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (July 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595671535
• ISBN-13: 978-0595671533
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,149,929 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read!, September 21, 2005

By	P. Nam (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mr. Rosen's novel, Silent Battlefield, read like a dream. His words were like a gentle spring flowing out so eloquently and effortlessly. You feel so immersed in the novel, actually seeing, feeling, and being a silent participant wondering about what tomorrow will bring. His keen observation of human behavior and inner thought processes was so well described in this novel. Consequently, this novel draws you in so that you can relate to all the characters, their mental anguishes, and inter-actions with each other, yet realizing that each character is uniquely different.

I very much enjoyed watching the unfolding of each character's life story from their particular circumstances as they matured into self-fulfilled persons. In that process, you see their pains, struggles, and coming to terms with who they are. In short, there is a lesson here about life, about good and evil, and about the reality that a person's private actions do matter in becoming your own person.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving story intelligently written, August 11, 2005

By	Ronald C. Comer (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Among the delights in reading "Silent Battlefields," are the deeply human connections one makes with this novel's sensitively developed characters. It is difficult to comprehend how this can be Hugh Rosen's first novel when taking into consideration the sagacious craftsmanship with which he reveals to his readers the inner souls of his characters while guiding us through multiple, intertwining levels of their truly moving and eloquently told life stories.

This is a novel that never gets bogged down in unnecessary exposition. Instead, readers will find themselves moving through intriguing situations and thought-provoking episodes from beginning to the novel's end. I found myself marveling at the many twists and turns of this multi-layered story, and impressed by an ever expanding awareness of how each character's inner-most struggles are so carefully revealed at just the right moments within the tapestry of very believable conflicts each character presents.

The book is aptly named because it is not about a very loud WWII, nor is it specifically about the horrors of The Holocaust. However, these tragic historical realities do serve as the backdrop upon which the characters in this novel play out their personal struggles to define their lives with each other and to find within themselves the courage to make the choices so essential in their respective lives. For me, "Silent Battlefields" refers to the battlefields we experience within our own psyche when engaged in desperate private struggles to break free of thought and behavior patterns that no longer seem to work in the face of ever-changing life challenges. Because we all can relate to the existence of our own "silent battlefields," the struggles and triumphs presented in this exquisite novel make for an irresistible read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Dramatic Story, December 24, 2005

By	Richard R. Blake (Bridgman, Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Silent Battlefields: A Novel (Paperback)

The narrative begins in the year 1939 and introduces the first of a cast of characters caught in a dilemma of loyalties. Immediately I was drawn into the environment surrounding the German Youth movement and the immense difficulty faced by the Jews in Germany as Hitler expanded his ruthless appetite for power.

Rosen uses conversation as a tool to draw the reader into the background needed to set the story in motion. He also uses conflict and romance to develop the plot movement. In this way he captures and holds the readers attention.

Each character becomes a complex individual calling for empathy, dislike, and respect. I was left with a desire to know more of the inner feelings of the characters with whom I identified. There was a haunting theme throughout the narrative. Characters were deprived of potential relationships because of prejudice and bigotry. Relationships between individuals were overshadowed by an effort not to become vulnerable. Each guarded a secret inner guilt. His characters are believable and showed both their flaws and their inner strengths.

Rosen's beautiful, often stirring word pictures and striking descriptive phrases evoked a roller coaster of emotions from this reader.

His attention to detail in background research and character development is enhanced by his colorful comparisons. His research is both scholarly and convincing. The whole story is thought provoking and soul searching.

Although I am neither Jewish, nor German, I felt an identity with the characters. I recognized in myself the conflict of and the waging of personal silent battles.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who remembers personally those years of World War II and anyone seeking to better understand the complex sense of survival, whether a direct holocaust victim, participant, or someone caught up in a web of a secret battlefield of unanswered guilt or despair.