Night sparrow

When the Nazis invade the Soviet Union in 1941, ambitious university student Yelena Bruskinova sees her world fall apart. Under occupying orders, she and her family must move to the Minsk ghetto, where residents are soon being murdered. Having gradually lost all her family members, she decides to escape the ghetto to avenge them.

Shortly afterwards, a training facility for female front-line snipers is established near Moscow, offering Yelena the perfect opportunity for revenge. She joins a platoon of female snipers ready to fight for their homeland despite the harsh conditions they face. Once her training is complete, Yelena joins the fight on the Eastern Front, but her vision of vengeance against the Nazi killers remains unfulfilled. She feels ashamed of her low number of kills and is devastated by the deaths of her fellow soldiers. Wounded in battle, her knowledge of German leads to her selection as an interpreter. She accepts the new role once she realises she is part of a secret mission to track down the leader of the Nazi regime, Adolf Hitler himself.

Yelena Bruskinova’s novelised story is based on the lives of real snipers and interpreters who served in the Red Army during the Second World War. It is a portrait of friendship, resilience, courage, and self-sacrifice in extraordinary times.