River's Requiem

River's Requiem traces the lives of several families in the German town of Romershagen, a one-time Roman village in southern Westphalia, from the beginning of World War I through the American occupation at the end of World War II.

It opens in 1912 at the 600th anniversary of the town as its population anxiously awaits the arrival of a Prince to function as their guest of honor. It is the time of the "Golden Kaiser Years." With prosperity at an all-time high, the problems of the population seemed insignificant, until World War I altered everyone's lives and accelerated change.

Two wars and hard times--even starvation--forever changed the town's families and this novel tells how they adapted --some by holding true to their sense of morality and fair play and others by choosing a course built on dishonesty and greed.

The village is seen mostly through the eyes of young Freia Hagen, daughter of Kurt Hagen, a prominent cabinet maker.

This unique story tells how ordinary Germans experienced wars, economic desperation and invasion, rather than how its soldiers fought those wars. You'll see how the town's people grappled with difficult choices, such as how to protect the Jews and Gypsies in their midst from the Nazis, a manifestation of bygone days, when their ancestors excelled in noble-minded deeds in the midst of adversities.

How past events steeled the German character and taught its people to be survivors is explained by a series of historical flashbacks conveyed by the river flowing through the town.

The river witnessed the invasion of the Romans under General Quintilius Varus. It took part in the witchcraft episode, and the period of reformation when the town's population held their own under the brutal aggressions of Cardinal Truchsess of Cologne. It tells of the attacks of Dutch robbers, as well as the arrival of the Rebaptists when a mass insanity led to death and destruction.

River's Requiem is must reading for anybody who wants to know what life was like in war-torn Germany, how its citizens adapted and what happened in past times to shape the German character.

Margaret Link is the author of River's Requiem. The story is loosely based on her life as a young woman in Germany before she emigrated to the US in 1931. It is being published for the first time in 2016.