Love Among the Ruins: A Memoir of Life and Love in Hamburg, 1945

By Harry Leslie Smith

Book Overview

' Harry Leslie Smith] is absolutely one of my heroes. Everyone should read this and be humbled.' Annie Lennox

'A deep love of humanity is what animates Smith. He is a hero of our times.' Newsweek

'His straight-from-the-heart delivery makes these events seem as clear and immediate as if they happened yesterday' Morning Star

At 22, the war is over for RAF serviceman Harry Leslie Smith - the now 92-year-old activist and author of the acclaimed Harry's Last Stand - but the battle for love and hope rages on. Stationed in occupied Hamburg, a city physically and emotionally ripped apart by Allied bombing, and determined to escape the grinding poverty of his Yorkshire youth, Harry unexpectedly finds a reason to stay: a young German woman by the name of Friede.

As their love develops, they must face both German suspicion and British disapproval of relations with 'the enemy'.
Harry's ardent, straight-from-the-heart memoir brings to life a city reduced to rubble, populated with refugees, black marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers. Love Among Ruins: A memoir of life and love in Hamburg is a unique snapshot of a terrible period in Europe's history, and a passionate love letter to a city, to a woman, and to life itself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 178578000X
• ISBN13: 9781785780004
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.7"