The first part of this book was the story of the German invasion of Poland in 1939. It tells about the fate of one Polish family from Krakow, the husband fighting in the Polish cavalry, the wife desperately trying to keep the rest of her family safe from the SS at whatever cost. This section, unfortunately, was enormously boring. The writing itself fell flat. I put this book down for a while and came back to it later hoping I would be in the mood for it later, but it didn't help. The writin...more The first part of this book was the story of the German invasion of Poland in 1939. It tells about the fate of one Polish family from Krakow, the husband fighting in the Polish cavalry, the wife desperately trying to keep the rest of her family safe from the SS at whatever cost. This section, unfortunately, was enormously boring. The writing itself fell flat. I put this book down for a while and came back to it later hoping I would be in the mood for it later, but it didn't help. The writing was utterly unengaging. I had trouble paying attention and when I did I was annoyed by things such as the way no character could be described unless they were standing in front of a mirror or a still body of water. But after 150 pages, we got to part two. This part was the story of the same family struggling to survive in war torn Europe four years later. The war is still raging and the husband and wife are both involved in resistance movements in Poland and Belgium. This part was much more interesting than the first part. The writing itself was still boring, but here the story was interesting enough to make up for it somewhat. Over all, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Life is too short for boring books. I'm sure there must be better World War II resistance movement stories out there.
Night Of Flames is a very well-researched novel set during WWII. The invasion of Poland and its occupation by Germany is told in harrowing detail, leaving readers with an understanding of the horrific effects of war on soldiers and civilians. The main characters, Jan and Anna, are a married couple drawn into the resistance movement. Their unflinching and consistent courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles seemed a bit contrived, as did the constant references to Anna's red-haired beauty. It was, however, a riveting look at the Polish and Belgian resistance movement during this darkest hour in world history.
