Join us as author Deborah Swift introduces three wary travellers on the Last Train to Freedom #HistoricalFiction #WWII #RecommendedReading

Last Train to Freedom

by Deborah Swift

1940. As Soviet forces storm Lithuania, Zofia and her brother Jacek must flee to survive.

A lifeline appears when Japanese consul Sugihara offers them visas on one condition: they must deliver a parcel to Tokyo. Inside lies intelligence on Nazi atrocities, evidence so explosive that Nazi and Soviet agents will stop at nothing to possess it.

Pursued across Siberia on the Trans-Siberian Express, Zofia faces danger at every turn, racing to expose the truth as Japan edges closer to allying with the Nazis. With the fate of countless lives hanging in the balance, can she complete her mission before time runs out?

Praise for Deborah Swift:

'Taut, compelling and beautifully written – I loved it!'

~ Daisy Wood

'A fast-paced, exciting read … kept me reading late on several nights. Will appeal to all lovers of both romance and wartime novels.'

~ Kathleen McGurl

'Tense and thought-provoking'

~ Catherine Law

'Such an interesting and original book…

Informative, full of suspense and thrills.'

~ NetGalley review

Travelling companions – my three characters aboard the Trans-Siberian Express

by Deborah Swift

There are three main characters in my novel Last Train to Freedom, and the novel is told from their points of view. They are trapped together in the same compartment on the Trans-Siberian Express, fleeing the Russian invasion of Lithuania, and each is hiding secrets from the rest.

The main female character is Zofia Kowalski, a Polish refugee who has fled the Nazis and is temporarily living in Lithuania. There were many such Jewish refugees who escaped the Nazi round-ups. She is one of twins – her brother Jacek, a journalist, fled with her. He had to murder someone to escape and is still trying to come to terms with what he did. Zofia herself has buried her trauma, and when the novel begins she is working in the library at Kaunas. Zofia speaks several languages as well as her native Polish. She is resourceful and physically tough, having wrestled with her brother and his friends as a child. She is fiercely loyal to her brother Jacek who is actually the weaker in their relationship. Jacek is given a package to deliver, but when things go wrong, Zofia ends up with the mission instead.

Otto
(c) Pexels – cottonbro studio

The second main character is Otto Wulfsson who is working as an aide in the office of Sugihara, the Japanese Consul in Kaunas. There really was a German working in this position so Otto’s character is based on him. Otto was born in Germany but has a difficult relationship with his German identity – which is not made easier when reports of German atrocities filter into the Consulate where he works.  Because of his birth, Otto is forced to become a spy for the Nazis, a role he resists but is forced to embrace under threat from the Nazis. Otto is an aesthete and an intellectual, who is unused to conflict, and totally unsuited to the role of Nazi undercover agent. Whilst on the train he becomes deeply attracted to Zofia, the person who in the end he is supposed to kill in order to retrieve the package the Nazis want.

Masha
Image (c) Pexels cottonbro studio

The third person on the train is Masha Matukas who is an agent for the Soviet NKVD – a communist organisation intent on purging intellectualism from Russian territories such as Lithuania. Masha is a hard-headed and ruthless worker for Communism, having been brought up in a deprived and down-trodden family who were rebels against the Tsarist Russians and the inequality of Russian society before the Red takeover. Masha is a skilled actress – manipulative and highly intelligent, but hides this under a ‘dumb blonde’ persona. Her task is also to retrieve the package that Zofia is carrying to Vladivostock on the Trans-Siberian Express.

Who will survive the six thousand mile journey? And will the package ever reach its destination - the Japanese commissioner in Kobe?

Find out in Last Train to Freedom!

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Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift is the English author of twenty historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Poison Keeper, the novel based around the life of the legendary poisoner Giulia Tofana. The Poison Keeper won the Wishing Shelf Readers Award for Book of the Decade. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against a background of real historical events.

Deborah lives in England on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

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