Back by demand! I hope you'll join us in talking with Alan Hlad, author of Churchill's Secret Messenger and The Long Flight Home, to hear about his latest book A Light Beyond the Trenches! Did you know that that the concept of using dogs to assist those who are blind was developed during WWI to assist soldiers who had been blinded? Alan has taken this historical fact and weaved it into an interesting and gripping new novel! 

By April 1916, the fervor that accompanied war’s outbreak has faded. In its place is a grim reality. Throughout Germany, essentials are rationed. Hope, too, is in short supply. Anna Zeller, whose fiancé, Bruno, is fighting on the western front, works as a nurse at an overcrowded hospital in Oldenburg, trying to comfort men broken in body and spirit. But during a visit from Dr. Stalling, the director of the Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association, she witnesses a rare spark of optimism: as a German shepherd guides a battle-blinded soldier over a garden path, Dr. Stalling is inspired with an idea—to train dogs as companions for sightless veterans.  Anna convinces Dr. Stalling to let her work at his new guide dog training school. Some of the dogs that arrive are themselves veterans of war, including Nia, a German shepherd with trench-damaged paws. Anna brings the ailing Nia home and secretly tends and trains her, convinced she may yet be the perfect guide for the right soldier. 

To learn more about this story, the first guide dog training school for the blind, and the author, tune in on March 28th! A lucky participant will win an ARC of  A Light Beyond the Trenches! Registration is required for this virtual event.