[Burgdorf Cycle 04] • Brûlures D'Enfance

The fourth novel in Ursula Hegi’s acclaimed Burgdorf cycle is “a thoughtful,

sidelong approach to the worst moment in Germany’s history that invites us to

understand how decent people come to collaborate with evil” ( _Kirkus Reviews_

).

_Children and Fire_ tells the story of one day that will forever transform the

lives of the people in Burgdorf, Germany, the fictitious village by the river

in Ursula Hegi’s bestselling novels. February 27, 1934—the first anniversary

of the burning of Reichstag, the Parliament building in Berlin.

Thekla Jansen, a gifted young teacher, loves her students and tries to protect

them from the chaos beyond their village. Believing the Nazis’ new regime will

not last forever, Thekla begins to relinquish some of her freedoms to keep her

teaching position. She has always taken her moral courage for granted, but

when each compromise chips away at that courage, she knows she must reclaim

it.

Ursula Hegi funnels pivotal moments in history through the experience of

Thekla, her students, and the townspeople as she writes along the edge where

sorrow and bliss meet, and shows us how one society—educated, cultural,

compassionate—can slip into a reality that’s fabricated by propaganda and

controlled by fear.

Gorgeously rendered and emotionally taut, _Children and Fire_ confirms Ursula

Hegi’s position as one of the most distinguished writers of her generation.