Book excerpt: "This is my first war." Twelve-year-old Ruth Imker has been running her whole life. From Vienna to Cologne. From Cologne to Rotterdam. Running. Always running. Rotterdam was supposed to be safe. But during the early morning of the tenth of May 1940 the Germans came. With nowhere to hide, with nowhere safe, Ruth Imker must get off the island of IJsselmonde if she is to survive. The trouble is that the German army wants the island too. Ruth's unlikely protector is an officer-cadet from Queen Wilhelmina's navy. Together the two are thrown into the midst of the Netherlands' first day of war. When Five Days Are Forever is a novel of the May War of 1940. It is a story of courage and survival. Of reliance and unlikely friendships. Most of all it is a story of hope in times where there ought to be none.