The Drums of Winter

by Sandra Paretti, Sophie Wilkins (Translator)

From the back cover:

"Somewhere in the unknown country was the man she loved and had risked everything to find again .... proud and beautiful Anna Haynow could hardly remember the luxury and gracious aristocratic life she had known in Europe. In a heartbreakingly short time, all that had been swept away by the currents of intrigue and the winds of war. Now she was a stranger in a strange land -- America, where marauding armies ravaged the countryside and no place promised her safety. Somewhere was the man who had once loved her dearly -- the man who would make her desperate gamble worthwhile, or mock her folly. Somewhere in the storm of conflict around her lay the happiness she sought, or the doom she could not escape." This is a novel of early America.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Novels

441 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Kerstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure why the description of this book appears in a slavic language, even for the English translation. The original is German.

It is one of my favorite historic novels. It plays during the Revolutionary War and is divided in two parts. The first part plays in Hesse, Germany. Hessian men young enough to fight in war are recruited by force and sold to the English Crown to then be shipped to the Americas to fight the rebels. The second part plays in Pennsylvania and the Battle of Trenton.
At the center of the story are two brothers, Robert and Claus von Haynau. They have the same mother but different fathers. No love is lost between them. Robert's father left for the Americas while his mother was pregnant with him with the intent of sending for them once he is established. But she never hears from her husband again. She remarries and has another son, Claus. The story is set twenty years later. The ever escalating animosity between the brothers will eventually bring about a final confrontation at the Battle of Trenton. As all these events unfold, the mother finds out that her first husband, the love of her life, and Robert's father, may still be alive.

[Becky Colosimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a clearance pile at Half Price Books because the cover blurb compared it to Gone with the Wind and because I am always looking for a good novel about the American Revolution. Sadly, after reading this, I am still looking. The first half of the book took place in Hessia (modern day Germany) and involved drama between two half-brothers which, after way too much convoluted and unexciting plot, sends them both to America to fight for the British. The best I can say for this is that I learned a bit about how the British came to hire Hessian soldiers to fight the war for them. The second half of the book picks up the story of the elder brother's father, who fled to America twenty years ago and is now a substantial landowner near Trenton. The back cover of the book suggested that the mother of the feuding brothers was the heroine of the novel, but she is actually a side character whose story never really gets resolved. The American Revolution is barely addressed and is nothing more than a setting. I believe the novel was originally written in German, so maybe something got lost in translation. Disappointing.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I could remember where I picked up this book - book sale of some sort. Love that it was translated from German & 52 years old. Always enjoy historical fiction mixed with a family saga & this didn't disappoint including Europe starting in Hesse, Germany & ending with the battle of Trenton in the earlier days of the Revolutionary war. Two brothers, Robert and Claus have the same mother but different fathers. This follows 20+ years as Robert's father (presumed dead) is really in America & Anna's life without her husband as she remarries and has son Claus. The story really picks up here as the sons have never gotten along & escalates with the Battle at Trenton - the final confrontation.