Ashes and Ruins

Love, War , and the Home Front

Coming January 31, 2026

E-book available for pre-sale on Amazon now! Order your copy!

Paperback available for pre-sale on Amazon November 25, 2025

Great for Book Clubs

Ashes and Ruins includes book club discussion questions

FROM NAZI GERMANY TO BLITZ-TORN LONDON, a Jewish mother and daughter endure turmoil, lost love, and hardship.

After years of a loveless marriage, recently widowed Clara finds solace in music and memories. Then, as living in Germany becomes more dangerous, she discovers romance for the first time. Meanwhile, Edith, no longer willing to endure Nazi persecution, leaves her first love to find safety in London and the arms of an Englishman. 

On the eve of war, Clara and Edith reunite in London and forge a new relationship. Will mother and daughter weather the stress of air raids, the mood swings of Edith’s erratic husband, and the demands of house and childcare? Will their bond sustain them, or will it crack under the pressure of wartime traumas? 

Based on the true story of the author’s grandmother and aunt, Ashes and Ruins brings readers the full story of Clara and Edith, introduced in K. Lang-Slattery’s earlier novel, Immigrant Soldier.  In this stand-alone story, the two women come alive in a tale of quiet courage and perseverance before and during World War II.

ISBN: 979-8-9862013-0-6 (hardcover) / 979-8-9862013-1-3 (paperback) / 979-8-9862013-2-0 (Kindle/mobi) / 979-8-9862013-3-7 (epub)

Subject: 1. World War II / 2. Germany 1934-1940 / 3. London 1939 – 1943 / 4. The Blitz / 5. Rationing in WWII England / 6. Enemy Aliens in WWII England / 7. Jews – German – WWII / 8. Daily life – London – WWII

Pages: 399

Author’s Notes

During the months I spent researching and writing that first novel (okay, let’s be honest…the years!) the idea of writing a woman’s story always bubbled below the surface and thoughts of the women from Immigrant Soldier kept circling my mind. My grandmother, Clara (Herman’s mother) and my aunt Edith (Herman’s sister) spoke to me, begging me to write about them.

My first novel, Immigrant Soldier, was based on the World War II experiences of my uncle, Herman Lang. Though the story was gripping—a combination of a coming-of-age story, an immigrant tale, and a wartime adventure—I found that writing from the point-of-view of a young man was sometimes an out-of-body experience.

But I was unsure how to make their quieter lives work as a novel. My two women relatives did nothing unusual in any big heroic sense. They were not spies or resistance fighters, ambulance drivers or code breakers. They did not suffer in concentration camps or hide in basements, sewers, or forests. Yet, I knew instinctively that they represented something important—women who waited, made do, worked hard, worried about their loved ones, and protected their children.  They were the strength behind the heroes. I also came to understand that in many small and quiet acts, Clara and Edith were heroes, too. 

I have often told readers that Immigrant Soldier is about 90% true and the plot line is based entirely on Herman’s memories shared with me over many days of interviews.  For Edith’s story I had only about five hours of interview time and for Clara there were only my memories of family stories I heard as a child and young adult. 

I realized at once that because I had less primary material, Ashes and Ruins would be more fictionalized than my earlier work. I would need to stretch my imagination. Fortunately, this time, I was telling the story of a mother blessed by a strong relationship with her daughter and was able to cull the depths of my own experiences.  

Questions about time and place led me to copious amounts of research, including a trip to London and correspondence with the city archives in Meiningen, Germany.

Snippets of truth aside, Ashes and Ruins is a work of fiction. I hope readers will find its strength does not lie in what is true, but in how it depicts the evolving relationship between a mother and daughter, the quiet heroism of women on the home front, and the step-by-step escalation of anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany. As I wrote about Edith and Clara, I realized PTSD and a woman’s right to choose, two issues with current significance, were also part of their story.  It is my hope that these themes make Ashes and Ruins both universal and relevant to today’s readers.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all mothers and daughters who face the world together. And most especially to my own daughter, Erin Slattery, who has always been my companion and friend. Her smile brings light to my life.