In the Shadow of Wolves

“Everything rises up from the past, as if through fog …… All is distant, but not forgotten.” This book is based on the ‘wolfskinder’ - wolf children - German children who went to Lithuania after WW2 in an attempt to survive. They did not always find kindness across the border. Many were cruelly exploited and some never saw their natural family again. It is a dark episode of European history that few people (and I was one of them) are aware of and, to this day, is a subject that both Germans and Lithuanians shy away from. In The Shadow of Wolves is not a book about WW2. It is a book about the consequences of war and how it is always the weakest and most innocent who suffer most. Needless to say, parallels with current conflicts come to mind and the uppermost feeling I came away with is that 80 years have passed since the events described in this book, and we have learnt nothing. Though simply written, perhaps mirroring the thoughts of Renate and her siblings whose lives we follow, this book is evocative in its delivery. INTSOW is a disquieting, harrowing and brutal read but does end on a note of hope. “The cold was everywhere; it was in the blood. Hunger was gnawing at them from the inside like an icy fire that could not be assuaged. The children could no longer remember a time when they hadn’t been hungry.”