WOMEN AT HITLER'S TABLE

East Prussia, 1943. 'We entered one at a time. We had waited for hours outside, lined up in the hallway. The room was large, its walls white. In the centre of it, a long wooden table already laid out. They gestured for us to sit. I sat with my hands clasped on my belly. In front of me, a white ceramic plate. I was hungry. The other women had taken their places without a sound. There were ten of us. Some sat up straight and poised, their hair pulled into buns... For years we had lived with this hunger, this fear, and when the smell of cooked food was under our noses, our heartbeats throbbed in our temples, our mouths watered... As though we're not being forced to eat it all, as though we could refuse this food, this meal isn't intended for us... My mother used to say eating was a way of battling death. She said it even before Hitler... When the meal was over, two SS guards stepped forward... 'In an hour's time you'll all be free to go.' 'Or dead' remarked his comrade.' Hitler is hiding away in the Wolfsschanze, his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war and his enemies circle ever closer. Ten women are chosen to taste his food and protect him from being poisoned. 26 year old Rosa has lost everything to this war - her parents are dead, her husband is fighting on the front line. Alone and scared she faces the SS with nothing but the knowledge that every bite might be her last. How far is Rosa willing to go to survive? A disturbing and beautifully written novel based on shockingly real events, this is an international bestseller. 341pp.