"1945. Dresden, Germany. Lizzie, her mother -- and an elephant from the zoo, flee the Allied fire-bombing in the end-game of the Second World War. Escaping the Allies' advance from the West -- and also the advancing Russian armies from the East -- This extraordinary trio of refugees meet: a downed RAF officer, cowering in a barn; a homeless school choir on the run and their Countess saviour, harbouring them from the Nazis; and the mechnanised American cavalry, appearing over the horizon. It is Lizzie's story -- but Marlene, the elephant, is the heroine. Plodding, obdurate, opportunistic, load-bearing, indestructible, cheering -- Marlene embodies the stubbornness of the human will and how it will do everything to survive."--Page [4] of cover.
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