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Doctor Georg Hofmeister is serving as a second lieutenant and physician on a medical train that is being sent to the Russian front during World War II. Under the direction of Doctor von Wallenstein and with an engine crew that travels with the doctors and their staff to maintain its special needs, the rolling hospital services both soldiers at the front as well as any civilians who need medical assistance. Attempting to return after attending to a civilian patient, Georg finds that the medical train, along with its crew, has suddenly vanished. Now he must find his way back across several borders under dangerous circumstances. As either side would consider him a deserter should he be discovered, he could be shot. Along the way, he will be challenged as never before, and his courage and beliefs will be put to the test.
Told through the eyes of a young doctor during the war, this novel is part philosophy and part war adventure. As the son of a World War II survivor, Vogel attempts to discover what the war may have been like for his father, a man who never talked about the war and was probably suffering from PTSD. It is a harrowing tale of perseverance. The philosophical discussions concerning war, death, sin, and religion are particularly intriguing. The author does an excellent job of conveying the urgency that war invokes, as well as the inner struggle one experiences when life’s circumstances force reactions which are in opposition to one’s core beliefs. This is a mesmerizing tale of the devastation of war and one man’s struggles to survive both his inner and outer conflicts.