Fly Away Home

Christel and her family are living in a neighbor's suburban summer villa in Vienna as WW II winds down. Rumors are flying that the Russians are coming. In the meantime, Christel lives the ordinary life of a child, fighting with her mother, throwing things at the neighbor girl, and trying to burn her father's Nazi soldier clothes before answering the door to a group who could be pursuing him.

It's a comedy amid a drama, and Christel is Pippi Longstocking come to life.


This is the first book I've ever read in which the main character has friends who are both Nazis and enemies of Nazis and both were fully human.