6. Children and Fire

By Ursula Hegi (272 pp) Hegi wrote a book called Stones from the River that was published in 1994 and later became an Oprah book so it was everywhere. I read it a long time ago but as I recall it was set in a fictional German village during the time leading to, during, and after WWII. This book takes place in the same village on a single day in 1934 with flashbacks and concerns a young school teacher dealing with her students and learning of her troubled history. Hegi is an incredible writer and this story is easy to read and completely devastating. Recommend.