About the author:
\nNina Willner is the award-winning author of two critically accla imed nonfiction books. The Boys in the Light&nbs p\;(Dutton/Penguin Random House 2025) was named \;Amazon&rsquo\;s #3 B est Book of 2025 &ndash\; Top Nonfiction\, and Best History Book of the Ye ar\, received a Kirkus \;starred \;review\, and won a 2026 Christo pher Award. Willner's first book Forty Autumns \;(HarperColli ns Wm Morrow 2016) was \;named \;a \;&ldquo\;Top 15 Nonfiction Book of 2016&rdquo\; \;by The CS Monitor. \;Prior to her writing career\, Nina was a US Army intelligence officer who led sensitiv e missions behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. After a career in intelligence\, Nina lived in Moscow\, Minsk\, Prague\, Ottawa and Istanbul working on numerous humanitarian missions. After years living abroad\, sh e now writes narrative nonfiction full time from her home in Washington DC .
\nThe Boys in the Light \;follows th e parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner\, the author&rsquo\;s f ather\, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II.
\nAt six teen\, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler&rsquo\;s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his fathe r and his best friend\, Mike\, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps\, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile\, in the United States\, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers\, factory worke rs\, and coal miners\, they were suddenly untested soldiers\, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII.
\nA company of 3rd Armored Division ta
nkers\, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland\, quickly became battle-hardened
and weary\, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got
their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their t
attooed arms raised.
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