The Betrayed by Christy Kenneally

It's 1940 and while Germany prepares to invade Russia, the Vatican turns a blind eye to the atrocities sweeping Europe. And in the small village in Austria, Hans, Elsa and Fritz, three friends on the brink of adulthood play together in innocence.

Yet, buried deep within one is a darkness that cannot be contained. When peaceful village life is shattered by the disappearance of Elsa, Hans and Fritz find their destinies are sealed.

 Days after her disappearance, Hans is conscripted to the German army. Fighting for his life in the deathly cold of the Russian winter during Operation Barbarossa, by day he struggles to stay alive, by night his dreams are haunted by Elsa.

Fritz has fled to safety to live with his uncle, the Monsignor, in the Bishop's Palace in Zagreb. There, he sees a war fought from the inside, where knowledge is the ultimate weapon and power, the ultimate prize.

As the years pass Hans and Fritz both fight a war that can never be won. The boys become men. One, now a soldier haunted by the faces of the men left behind on the battlefields of Russia, and the disappearance of his one love. The other, now a priest in Rome, consumed by power and greed. But they are destined to meet again.

When Hans is deployed to Rome, he comes face-to-face with his childhood friend. For Fritz, only one man has the power to destroy him. Because only Hans knows the truth behind Elsa's disappearance.

From the mountains of Austria, to the borders of Russia, the cities of Vienna, Zagreb and Rome, The Betrayed is an epic story of loss, love and the power of destiny.