Christine Nostlinger Quotes

“When her family’s apartment in Vienna is bombed, Christel Goth and her family lose everything. They are offered the use of a summer villa in the suburbs, ...”

“Life for Cristal has been upside down for a long time. She can’t even remember a time before the war began.”

“Before potatoes for every meal and bombs raining down from the sky. Before being forced to shelter in the dark, damp cellars.”

“They walk there in just the clothes they stand up in. The war is ending, and there is a precarious existence eking out food stores, and anticipating horrors from the oncoming Russian army.”

“But when they come, the worst the soldiers do is get drunk and fire their guns. It’s a tense time, and Christel’s active curiosity leads her into all sorts of dangerous places.”

“Then one day, Cristal’s home is turned into a pile of rubble and dust five meters high.”

“But a chance offer saves her family. They move to the safety of a wealthy suburb, camping out amongst the chandeliers and family portraits of someone else’s house.”

“That is until the dreaded Russians roll into Vienna and move in too...”

“Austria was occupied by the Russian Army following WWII. This is a memoir of an 8 year old girl living in Vienna in 1945. ”

“Living on the edge of the city in an undamaged house that was taken over by a Russian Major and his staff, the narrator and her family are somewhat protected.”