From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (The Liberator Series, Book 4)
From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (The Liberator Series, Book 4) book cover

From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (The Liberator Series, Book 4)

Paperback – January 1, 2003

Price
$13.34
Format
Paperback
Pages
464
Publisher
Moody Publishers
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0802415547
Dimensions
5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
Weight
1.05 pounds

Description

With a tender voice, Tricia Goyer has crafted a compelling story of love and liberation. Fans of historical fiction will be delighted with this wonderful novel from a new and rising author. -Robin Jones Gunn, best-selling author of the Glenbrooke Series and the Christy Miller Series for teens As a veteran of the 11th Armored Division during the liberation of Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, I am very impressed with the studied details Tricia Goyer, an author of a later generation, has gathered and interwoven with the fiction story From Dust and Ashes . I heartily recommend this wonderful book. -Ross Snowdon, U.S. Army veteran, 1Ith Armored Division Freedom of the human spirit and heroism beyond the call of duty— From Dust and Ashes is a story as relevant today as in the time it so beautifully captures. -Cindy McCormick Martinusen,xa0author of Winter Passing and Christy Award finalist What a story! It sweeps us back to a time when the world swore “Never again” and gives us raw hope to walk away with. From Dust and Ashes is too good to be a first novel. -Anne De Graaf, international best-selling author and Christy Award winner From Dust and Ashes depicts the true physical and emotional hardships endured at Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps.xa0 This is a valuable, much-needed book for every person to read.xa0 The book mirrors my memories. -LeRoy Woychik, U.S. Army veteran, 11th Armored DivisionFrom Dust and Ashes is a remarkable portrayal of God's transforming power in the aftermath of war.xa0 Tricia Goyer invites us on a journey into the lives of three unlikely friends who find hope in the midst of destruction and love from the dust and ashes.xa0 Highly recommended. -Marlo Schalesky, author of the Winds of Freedom series Fictional with extremely factualdetail.xa0 Took me back almost 60 years ago. -LeRoy E. Petersohn, U.S. Army veteran, 11th Armored DivisionFrom Dust and Ashes is a must-read.xa0 Although written in fiction form, it beautifully relates the feeling and anxieties of the victims of the German concentration camps, as well as the German non-Nazi civilian experiences after the war.xa0 Tricia Goyer did a great job in researching by humanizing all events based on actual facts.xa0 I was with the 11th Armored Division, 41st Calvary Reconnaissance, in Europe, and being the first on the scene was probably the only GI to actually witness the unelaborated death camps while they were still in operation. -Thomas C. Niccolla, U.S. Army veteran, 11th Armored Division Nazis flee under cover of darkness as American troops near the town of St. Georgen. A terrible surprise awaits the unsuspecting GIs.xa0 And three people—the wife of an SS guard, an American soldier, and a concentration camp survivor—will never be the same. Inspired by actual events surrounding the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp, From Dust and Ashes shows the healing power of forgiveness. With a tender voice, Tricia Goyer has crafted a compelling story of love and liberation. Fans of historical fiction will be delighted with this wonderful novel from a new and rising author. ROBIN JONES GUNN, best-selling author of the Glenbrooke Series and the Christy Miller Series for teens As a veteran of the 11th Armored Division during the liberation of Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, I am very impressed with the studied details Tricia Goyer, an author of a later generation, has gathered and interwoven with the fiction story From Dust and Ashes . I heartily recommend this wonderful book. ROSS SNOWDON, U.S. Army veteran, 1Ith Armored Division Freedom of the human spirit and heroism beyond the call of duty— From Dust and Ashes is a story as relevant today as in the time it so beautifully captures. CINDY MCCORMICK MARTINUSEN, author of Winter Passing and Christy Award finalist What a story! It sweeps us back to a time when the world swore “Never again” and gives us raw hope to walk away with. From Dust and Ashes is too good to be a first novel. ANNE DE GRAAF , international best-selling author and Christy Award winner TRICIA GOYER has published numerous articles in national publications including Guideposts for Kids , Christian Parenting Today , and HomeLife. She is an experienced Bible study leader, and her study notes appear in the Women of Faith Study Bible. Tricia and her husband, John, live with their three children in northwestern Montana. TRICIA GOYER is an acclaimed and prolific writer, publishing hundreds of articles in national magazines including Today¿s Christian Woman and Focus on the Family while authoring more than twenty-five fiction and nonfiction books combined. Among those are 3:16 Teen Edition with Max Lucado and the American Christian Fiction Writers¿ Book of the Year Award winners Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights . She has also written books on marriage and parenting and contributed notes to the Women of Faith Study Bible . Tricia lives with her husband and four children in Arkansas. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • It is 1945, and a group of American soldiers liberate a Nazi concentration camp. Helene is the abandoned wife of an SS guard who has fled to avoid arrest. Overcome by guilt, she begins to help meet the needs of survivors. Throughout the process, she finds her own liberation--from spiritual bondage, sin, and guilt. Readers will be intrigued and touched by this fascinating story of love, faithfulness, and courage amidst one of the darkest chapters of mankind's history.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(806)
★★★★
25%
(336)
★★★
15%
(202)
★★
7%
(94)
-7%
(-94)

Most Helpful Reviews

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So gripping that I had to tear myself away to get to bed!

From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation(The Liberator Series,Book 4) was so hard for me to put down. I love it when a book is THAT good! I also love when an historical teaches me history,as this novel did. It was fascinating to read that General Patton ordered the liberating American soldiers to make the civilians around the concentration camps to help bury the dead and attend funerals for them,so they would be forced to see and acknowledge what their inaction had caused.

I don't see how a book about this era could have been more perfectly written.This book is so perfect that I wouldn't want to change a single word of it!

I got totally wrapped up in the characters and really cared about wanting everything to work out for them.

This book is not a 'light' read.It will really stir your emotions and make you ask yourself some questions about how you would conduct yourself in the same situation,and even questions about how did these horrors affect people's faith and how would you handle those questions about where was God?

The author was perfectly right to bring such questions into the story,because I know any thinking person,has asked them.
The romances were also wonderfully developed and so sweet.

I just realized when I was almost finished with this book,that I had read the last book in the series,first,so now I will go back and read the other 3 in order!

I highly recommend this WW II historical romance to any who have an interest in this horrible period of history.

Be forewarned however,that it IS tagged Christian fiction and Christian Historical Romance!
6 people found this helpful
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Wonderful story, wonderfully written

From Dust and Ashes drew me in from the beginning and was hard to put down. This historical fiction is set in Austria in 1945 toward the end of the war. The story's main character is Helene, who is married to an SS guard, but does not agree with the Nazi way.

As her husband abandons her and their daughter (and a baby on the way) she is forced to make amends with her estranged father. After the Americans liberated the nearby concentration camp, Helene's heart goes out to the captives and she risks everything to help them. What would they do if they knew she was an SS wife?

Helene takes in two women from the camp and offers to help restore them to health, forfeiting her only chance to leave the country and start a new life. But that's only the beginning. Russia takes over the part of Austria where she lives and as she fights for the freedom of her and her children someone is trying to get her and use her for his own agenda.

I loved how the unlikely relationships formed between people who would have never been thrown together otherwise. There is a touch of romance thrown in, but it's not the focal point of the story. Tricia does a wonderful job taking us back to that time and letting us see into the lives of the many people who lived it. It's obvious Tricia did her homework!

From Dust and Ashes was an easy read. Despite the subject, it was not heavy or depressing, but captivating and informative. I highly recommend it to anyone and I can't wait to read more of her work!
3 people found this helpful
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Gripping, hard-to-put-down historical fiction!

"From Dust and Ashes" is such a touching, interesting, and compelling book! I loved the story, especially since it was based on a true story! I was so privileged to proofread this book. It definitely stands out in my mind--one of the best books I've ever proofread. The SS wife, the people in the concentration camp, the American soldier; all of it became so real that I felt like I was there. I love historical fiction that can pull me into that time, place, and the minds of the characters. Tricia also shows us how God can bring beauty from ashes & use even our toughest circumstances to show His love to each of His children. A wonderful book I will never forget!

Tricia Goyer is an incredibly gifted writer; she's become one of my favorites. I look forward to reading all of her historical fiction! Don't miss this gripping and fascinating book!
3 people found this helpful
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A Very Good Book

As many have already eluded to the story in the book I will simply speak in reference of characters and plot. The characters in the book were so well explored that within a few pages you felt as though you knew them. You could feel Helene's pain as she attempted to help both her SS husband, and the survivors in the camps. I loved Peter and all he did to help Michaela and Helene find peace as well as survive. Yes, this was a book written by a christian author in my opinion who left out all the foul language and sex scenes that all books seem to be composed of these days. I found that to be rather pleasant as well as a breath of fresh air. I loved the plot even though it takes you deep into the concentration camps and at times makes you want to cry for these people. How sad and horrible that anyone had to endure what these people endured. This was truly one of the best books I have read in a long time. I recommend this to anyone that would like to read a book that tells a story that will take you into the depths of poverty and despair as well as the hope and promise of a better tomorrow through salvation.
2 people found this helpful
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Liberation for the oppressor

"A story of liberation" is the subtitle of this novel, not about World War II, but about its aftermath. In the opening chapters American GIs liberate the Gusen concentration camp outside St. Georgen, Austria, but the story is really about the spiritual liberation of Helene, wife of a missing SS officer. Wracked by guilt for her own complicity and her husband's horrific actions, she is one of the first to enter the camp to bring aid. There she meets Michaela, a Polish inmate near death, whose faith brings new life to Helene's family. Both young women are helped by Peter, the attractive and compassionate American GI who led the liberation. In many romances you wonder which guy will get the girl. In this one, the question is which girl will get the guy.

The fast-moving plot kept me awake far later than I intended. Trisha Goyer captures the complicated situation and conflicting emotions on all sides AFTER the war and makes them all believable. Her sense of eye-witness realism sent me to the Internet to confirm the amazing authenticity of what she has written.
2 people found this helpful
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Beautifully written.

This was a beautifully written book about the end of Nazi occupation of Europe. The book told of Helene, a Nazi wife, who
reached out to the concentration camp victims, taking 2 of them into her home and nursing them back to health. The book is
told through 3 viewpoints: the Nazi victim, the American GI, and the Nazi wife. It was great to hear the different
viewpoints of the different time periods.
This book was obviously well researched, as the horrors of Nazi occupations were described how vividly. Helene's feelings to
the treatment of the concentration camp victims came out so good. I loved Michaela, and how through her, Helene gradually
came into a relationship with God.
I look forward to more books by this author.
2 people found this helpful
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"Peaceful is different from quiet."

What a poignant story of what happened to survivors of the holocaust, and even those related to the SS soldiers who'd carried out their horrid orders. What happened to them after the war? And where was God in all the horror and misery? How could any of it be forgiven? How do people move on after such devastation. Tricia Goyer, inspired by her grandfather's stories of the war, has done much research, visiting Austria and the places similar scenes took place. In the front are comments by surviving veterans of the 11th Armored Division. This is a worthy novel about world history that must never be repeated.
1 people found this helpful
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Well Written WWII Fiction

Yes, this is a 10+ year old book, and I just read it. I have recently found a fondness for WWII fiction, and this was a very satisfying book. Mrs. Goyer's research is evident in the details. I was surprised by some of the decisions of the characters, but that kept me reading. It is a Christian fiction love story set in a terribly troubling and disturbing era, but is appropriate for men, women and teens.
1 people found this helpful
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Wonderful story of the aftermath of WWII

There are many Christian historical fiction books written about World War II and I love that time period. Rarely do we hear the stories from the aftermath of that disastrous chapter in world history... until now.

Tricia Goyer memorably weaves the stories of Helene, who is struggling with the guilt of her huband's sins; Peter, an American soldier who is trying to find something more; and Michaela, a girl who survived the Nazi extermination camps. I was held spellbound through this thrilling drama. Filled with plot twists, From Dust and Ashes is provides a valuable glimpse into the hope and healing found after WWII.

Tricia Goyer's books are characterized by glimpses of God's grace and this book is no exception. I appreciate how she shows us the horrific results of the Holocaust and the efforts of the real people back then to help the victims. I highly recommend From Dust and Ashes to history fans or anyone who loves a tale of forgiveness, love, and hope.

Rating: 5/5

Ages: 16+

From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (Book One in the Liberator Series) by Tricia Goyer
ISBN: 0802415547
Moody Publishers

*Thanks to Moody Publishers for the review copy. The opinions expressed are my own and I was not compensated in any way. I was not required to write a positive review.*
1 people found this helpful
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Very Good Book

I really liked this book. I read it over Thanksgiving. It will make you Thankful for all you have.
It is a story of people.
1 people found this helpful