In this compelling narrative about the end of the Second World War in Europe, acclaimed historian David Stafford delves behind the dramatic headlines proclaiming victory, to reveal the horrors and hardships of its final days and aftermath.

Drawing upon diaries, letters, and personal testimonies, he brilliantly interweaves the lives of ordinary people with the actions of military and political leaders, to paint a vivid panorama of a continent scarred and traumatized by a war whose effects continued long after the fighting stopped.

Praise for David Stafford:

‘A harrowing masterpiece of modern history’ — Sunday Express

‘A vivid reminder of the misery that persisted across Europe long after the shooting stopped in 1945’ — Daily Mail

‘David Stafford weaves an often majestic tapestry of testimony… Time and again, you sit up and take notice in ways that more conventional history lets slip…’ — The Observer

‘Stafford skillfully provides a connecting framework for a narrative of almost Tolstoyan proportions… which only a writer of the first calibre, strongest nerve and monumental intellectual stamina could tackle’ — The Spectator