I was enthralled with this book and it's characters and themes from page one. There were so many themes to consider and ask myself questions as to how I would have handled things. What is right and wrong during war? The characters were real to me, so the loss of each one struck me emotionally in some way. When Werner stepped on the German land mine, I actually cried out no. I still think about this book and it's open-ended questions and I read it a few years ago.