Teach the Children to Pray

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A lyrical intimate portrait of a young woman's coming of age in a Germany torn apart by the Thirty Years War <em>Teach the Children to Pray </em>is a novel for anyone who has ever grappled with the question of how to live well in difficult times.</strong></p><p><br></p><ul><li class=ql-align-center><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Pray children pray / Tomorrow comes the Swede / Tomorrow comes Oxenstiern' / To teach the children to pray / Pray children pray - </em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>German children's rhyme the Thirty Years War</span></li></ul><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>1618. A witch hunt forces ten year-old Josefine Dorn and her father to the harsh unforgiving roads of Germany. That same year Bohemian Protestants throw the Holy Roman Emperor's regents from a castle window sparking a religious war that soon engulfs the whole Empire. Driven by misfortune and desperation Josefine's father enlists and Josefine follows him into the army's baggage train. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In the army Josefine learns to survive first as a child looking after her soldier father and later in the unlikely role of field surgeon tending to the war's broken and ailing. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Josefine's story is interwoven with the ordinary people of Germany-men and women; Protestants Catholics and Jews; believers and nonbelievers-as they strive to hold onto what truly matters in spite of plundering armies and narrow-minded princes. Evocatively written and infused with warmth and humanity </span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Teach the Children to Pray</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> brings to life a richly-drawn cast of characters through the eyes of its striking heroine and her extraordinary story of lost faith forbidden love and the search for peace in a time of endless war.</span></p>