Ros­tov-on-Don, 1941. When the Ger­mans invade the Sovi­et Union, four­teen-year-old Bronya, a vio­lin prodi­gy, is torn from her dream of the Moscow Con­ser­va­to­ry and thrust into a world with­out solace or music. Her broth­er, Avsey, a pre­co­cious ten-year-old, hides his lone­li­ness in a birch box filled with stolen trea­sures, cling­ing to inno­cence even as war robs him of child­hood. With their moth­er insti­tu­tion­al­ized and their father prepar­ing to defend the Father­land, the sib­lings are scat­tered, forced into choic­es no child should ever face. Bronya is sent to har­vest wheat in the Ukrain­ian fields, armed only with her vio­lin, while Avsey evac­u­ates with neigh­bors who desert him, leav­ing him to sur­vive on luck and wit. Both chil­dren are pushed, unwit­ting­ly close to one anoth­er, into the Cau­cus­es, where, when the Ger­mans take the region, sur­vival becomes both an act of resis­tance and a frag­ile hope. You, With Your Wait­ing is a sear­ing nov­el of child­hood lost, of courage forged in ter­ror, and of the haunt­ing bonds that teth­er us to fam­i­ly, mem­o­ry, and home.