'A harrowing masterpiece of modern history' - Sunday ExpressIn this compelling narrative about the end of the Second World War in Europe, acclaimed historian David Stafford delves behind the dramatic headlines proclaiming victory to reveal the horrors and hardships of its final days and aftermath.Drawing upon diaries, letters, and personal testimonies, he brilliantly interweaves the lives of ordinary people with the actions of military and political leaders to paint a vivid panorama of a continent scarred and traumatized by a war whose effects continued long after the fighting stopped.'David Stafford weaves an often majestic tapestry of testimony... Time and again, you sit up and take notice in ways that more conventional history lets slip...' - The Observer'A vivid reminder of the misery that persisted across Europe long after the shooting stopped in 1945′ - Daily Mail'Stafford skillfully provides a connecting framework for a narrative of almost Tolstoyan proportions... which only a writer of the first calibre, strongest nerve and monumental intellectual stamina could tackle' - The SpectatorDavid Stafford is the author of many books on intelligence history and the Second World War. Formerly Project Director at the Centre for Second World War Studies at the University of Edinburgh, he is currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.