Evader: The CompellingTrue Story of Escape and Evasion Behind Enemy Lines
This welcome reprint of a classic WWII memoir originally published in England vividly narrates the author's harrowing experiences on the run in German-occupied France. Shot down in the fall of 1943, Teare spent a year evading the Germans and finally ended up as part of an active Resistance cell (one that included escaped Russian POWs and refugees from German work camps) before his liberation in August, 1944. In plain but effective prose, Teare pays tribute to his French helpers, all of whom risked their lives simply by being in contact with him and some of whom lost their lives for their Resistance activity. Some were genuine heroes, like the Chenu brothers. Others, like Madame Barbieri, whose quarrels with her husband nearly drove the author into flight (fake ID, accented French, hunger and all) or M. Colombo, a wheeler-dealer who faithfully supported the Resistance in every way that allowed him a generous profit, may make readers wryly smile. The threat and frequently the reality of the Germans' ruthless brutality hung over everyone every moment, and darkens the tone of this well-deserved tribute to a cross-section of French society.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.