A great thriller with a poignant historical background … terrific

The Bookseller

The stifling atmosphere and fear pervading people's lives in post war East Berlin are intensely felt… The author has created a thoroughly absorbing story within a real historical setting to great effect, appealing to teenage readers across the board

The Book Trust

Dowswell achieves a sense of balance between the fast paced action and adrenaline rush of a thriller and the detail and realism of a historical novel, in this perfectly pitched hybrid novel which will keep readers gripped throughout

Books for Keeps

'Ausländer is a superlative, at times almost agonisingly compelling, piece of historical fiction . . . The climactic escape to freedom is pure muck-sweat tension'

Financial Times

'Doswell is one of the best new writers of historical fiction for children . . . [Ausländer] steps outside the victim culture of novels such as those by Morris Gleitzman and comes close to classics such as The Silver Sword. Admirers of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas should look at this novel as a model of imaginative sympathy'

The Times