Set in the Ukrain­ian town of Bor­shchiv in 1942, The Ene­my Above tells the sto­ry of Anton, a twelve-year-old boy, and his fam­i­ly, as they live in hid­ing from the Nazis. 

The book opens with Anton; his brave grand­moth­er, Bubbe; his uncle Pavel, who is like a broth­er to Anton, and his uncle Dmitri, who is con­stant­ly caught in the mid­dle between his moth­er and Pavel, all hid­ing in a series of under­ground caves. Gestapo offi­cer Major Karl Von Due­sen relent­less­ly pur­sues Anton’s fam­i­ly and the oth­er Jews in Bor­shchiv, try­ing to make the town juden­frei, free of Jews. In the end, Major Von Due­sen is defeat­ed by Anton’s fam­i­ly until the war ends and the Nazi night­mare is over.

While the char­ac­ters are not ful­ly devel­oped, this is a fast-mov­ing sto­ry packed with adven­ture. It should appeal to chil­dren ages 10 – 12 who are inter­est­ed in Holo­caust-themed literature.