This novel tells the story of a young Hungarian woman Eszter and her baby Eva who, by an extraordinary twist of fate, escape the horror of the mass murders being committed within the Birkenau extermination camp in WW2, and of the lives they live following this reprieve. The SS guard who allowed them to escape, Peter Leahy, falls in love with Eszter and goes to find her in war-torn Budapest. They are separated again by the return of Eszter’s husband, but never lose their love for one another.

Jeremy Bending spent his life as a hospital doctor and consultant physician. During that time, in addition to writing numerous medical and scientific papers, he continued to write fiction and stories. Some of these were brought together in his book A Listening Doctor, published in 2018. His first novel, In the Shadows of the Birch Trees, tells the story of a young Hungarian woman Eszter who, by an extraordinary twist of fate, escapes with her baby Eva from the horror of the mass killings taking place in WW2, in Birkenau, as they are about to enter the extermination camp.

Author: Jeremy Bending
Release date: September 2020
Format: Paperback, 218 pages
Availability: Available from all good bookshops. For wholesalers via Gardners or direct from the publisher.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1911593713
Paperback Price: £12.99