Soldier X

Wulffson, Don. Soldier X. 2001. 240p. ISBN 9780142500736. Available at FIC WUL on the library shelves.

At sixteen, Erik Brandt has never known a Germany without the Nazis. After five years of total warfare, the country is bleeding soldiers and is being pushed on all fronts by the Allies. Teens must now step in the shoes of older men and join the front hoping to slow down the Russians. Drafted in 1944, he doesn’t receive enough training, and practice shooting is limited due to ammunition shortages. Shipped to the Eastern Front, Erik finds himself surrounded by death and destruction. During his first battle, Erik is wounded and left behind enemy lines.

Lucky for him, his grandparents emigrated from Russia to Germany back in the 1920s, and he speaks fluent Russian with many of the idioms. When regaining consciousness, he grabs the uniform of a Russian soldier that looks like him and shambles back from the battlefield towards the Russian rear. Taken to a field hospital, he meets fifteen years old Tamara, a nurse who helps him recover. But at any time Erik, feigning amnesia, could be discovered. His very life depends on not making a single mistake. But in the torment of war, a slip up is only a whisper away. Where do his allegiance lay? Can Erik survive the war?

Sixteen-year-old Erik Brandt barely knows what Germany is fighting for when he is drafted into Hitler's army in 1944. Sent to the killing fields of the Eastern Front, he is surrounded by unimaginable sights, more horrific than he ever thought possible. It's kill or be killed, and it seems clear that Erik's days are numbered. Until, covered in blood and seriously injured, he conceives of another way to survive. Filled with gritty and visceral detail, Soldier X will change the way every reader thinks about the reality of war.