As time goes on, an intense friendship with a boy of his own age, Anton Zwiebel, begins to define Gustav's life. Gustav's childhood is spent in lonely isolation, his only toy a tin train with painted passengers staring blankly from the carriage windows. But Gustav's father has mysteriously died, and his adored mother Emilie is strangely cold and indifferent to him. Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in 'neutral' Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem a distant echo. What is the difference between friendship and love? Or between neutrality and commitment? ‘It is no use asking what happened, Gustav… How can I possibly know? Everything in the war depended on who you were and where you were. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2016 Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for February (2017)
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