The Bitterest Age is a beautiful novel about the power of love, faith, and faithfulness, set against the tumultuous background of the last year of World War Two. It is the story of a German family caught between the bombs of the Allies, now reducing Berlin to rubble, and the oncoming terror of the Soviet army. And it is the unforgettable portrait of a remarkable girl and her resolute devotion to her missing father.Ursula Maas has moved her family from Berlin to the outlying city of Potsdam, where she and her two children, Ingeborg and Andreas, hope to survive the last disastrous months of the Thousand Year Reich. It has been over a year since they have heard from the father, fighting on the Eastern Front, and the adults have given up hope of his return; but Ingeborg refuses to admit he is dead. When, with the imminent arrival of the Soviet army, Ursula insists they must flee, Ingeborg, fearful that in the ensuing chaos she will lose all chance of finding her father again, steadfastly refuses to leave.The Bitterest Age is a novel about the moral sanity of the everyday, set against the apocalyptic insanity of history. Narrated with precise historical accuracy and authenticity, the book is a gripping portrayal of a German family in the last, stunning months of the war. And in Ingeborg Maas it offers a poignant, universal story of a young girl's unshakable love. The Bitterest Age confirms Raymond Carver's observation that "Kennedy is a master storyteller... The author's vision has to do with a real wisdom of the heart." Read Less