Special to The Sun
Local author Sabine Spencer has published a novel, “Distant Prayers,” and will hold a planned reading at the Wakulla County Public Library on Sept. 5.
The novel is about Lili Amtner, the youngest daughter of a successful landowner in a German settlement in Volhynia, Russia – now part of Ukraine. When she marries the charismatic Hermann Filbert without her father’s blessing, she is convinced he will see their love and come around.
He does, but the family’s troubles are only about to begin when Hitler orders them to resettle in Poland and Hermann and her brothers are drafted. Then two of her brothers are killed and Hermann goes missing after the Battle of Stalingrad.
The family struggles on, fleeing the advancing Russian troops when Hitler loses the war. They finally move to a small village in Germany in the strictly administered Russian occupation zone, with Lili waiting for Hermann’s return.
But is he alive? And if he returns, how damaged will he be? After so much loss and hardship, can the beautiful and resilient Lili keep her faith and still believe that love really conquers all?
Spencer has a website: www.distantprayers.com
A sequel, ‘His Hands’, is about to be published in just a couple of weeks.
