Families at War

Three young artists in 1930s Germany are torn apart by love, ideology, and war. Years later, haunted by trauma and bound by memory, they reunite at an art exhibition, where past betrayals and enduring connections collide in a final reckoning of conscience, identity, and redemption.

Families at War is a sweeping tale of love, loyalty, and the brutal legacy of war.

Set across two decades and three countries Joseph Kennedy’s debut novel traces the fates of young people whose lives are torn apart by the rise of Nazism, the brutality of war, and the long shadow of its aftermath.

In 1930s Friedrichshafen, an English Jewish student, Judith, shares an artistic bond with gentle, thoughtful Matthias—and the dangerous attention of their classmate, Hinrich, whose devotion to Nazi ideology curdles into obsession. When hatred erupts into violence, Judith flees Germany with her family to England, while Matthias is driven into the Wehrmacht. The war soon hurls them into opposite worlds: Judith becomes a wartime nurse confronting the horrors of the Blitz and the burns ward, while Matthias endures the Eastern Front, witnessing atrocities that fracture his faith and future.

Across the Channel, in occupied France, the fearless Yolande risks everything in the Resistance, crossing paths with Hinrich in a deadly confrontation that will reverberate for years. As families hide, flee, resist, and simply try to survive, their choices entwine in unexpected ways.

After the guns fall silent, an art exhibition on Lake Constance draws these fractured lives together once more. Scarred by memory yet searching for meaning, Judith and Matthias must face the love they lost—and the man whose hatred shaped their destinies.

A story of courage and cruelty, survival and renewal, Families at War illuminates how love and art endure even in history’s darkest hours.

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