From the author of the phenomenally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas comes an unforgettable story of a boy's life changed by war, published to coincide with World War One's centenary. The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight -- but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn't know where his father might be, other than that he's away on a special, secret mission. Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name -- on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by -- a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place...