The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood - Hardcover

by Nina Willner (Author)

"This beautifully braided story...reveals the best and worst of humanity. A magnificent work of narrative nonfiction, true to the past and essential for the present."--Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La and 13 Hours

An epic true story of the triumph of good over evil.

The Boys in the Light follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author's father, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II.

At sixteen, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler's Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers, factory workers, and coal miners, they were suddenly untested soldiers, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII.

A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised.

The Boys in the Light is a testament to survival against all odds, the strength of the bonds forged during war and the resilience of the human spirit. This extraordinary true story is a must-read for fans of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile.

Author Biography

Nina Willner is the author of two critically acclaimed nonfiction books, The Boys in the Light, which was named Amazon Editors' #3 Best Book of the Year - Top Nonfiction, and Best History Book of 2025, and Forty Autumns, named a Top 15 Nonfiction Book of 2016 by The CS Monitor. Prior to her writing career, Nina was a US Army intelligence officer who led sensitive missions behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. After a career in intelligence, Nina worked in Moscow, Minsk, Prague, Ottawa and Istanbul promoting human rights, women's and children's causes and the rule of law for the US government, nonprofits and a variety of charities. After years living abroad, she now writes narrative nonfiction full time from her home in Washington DC.