The Upside of Hunger: A True Tale

He fled his village in eastern Hungary to escape his father's iron fist. But now, fighting for the SS, he's facing starvation on the Eastern Front and the deluge of enemy fire from the Russian army is coming closer every hour.

The Upside of Hunger is the powerful story of Adam Baumann's coming of age in the midst of WW2 and his journey toward manhood, from the rarely told perspective of a Hungarian-born German.

EASTERN HUNGARY, 1941 – desperate to escape his father’s iron fist, 12-year-old Adam fled. But when his father traced him to the mountain village where he was living under the guise of an orphan, Adam knew he’d have to go farther next time. The military recruitment station in Vienna seemed like the perfect solution, and the age of their recruits no longer mattered to the Germans. 

As autumn turned to winter and Adam lay terrified and starving in a frozen foxhole on the Eastern Front, he knew he’d made a horrible and deadly mistake. In front of him, enemy fire rained down from the approaching Russians. Behind him, his German commander’s orders were clear – hold steady. Then, a Russian bullet found its mark, catapulting Adam into a series of terrifying captures and narrow escapes from enemy forces as Europe reeled from the final destruction of WW2.

Never standing still, Adam struggled through war-torn landscapes to find his family and began to build a life from the ashes, until the results of a medical examination at an American Embassy in Germany changed the course of his future again.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting true story of courage in the face of unbeatable odds. 

Praise for The Upside of Hunger:

“Rarely do we see a book of this era written from the perspective of a German from Hungary. What an educational opportunity for all of us--even those of us familiar with the time period--to learn how much we just don't know!”

“Sometimes truth is better than fiction, and the story of Adam's life is truly so.”

“Beautiful, shocking, at times painful... the magnificently told story of a boy who triumphed over the limitations of history to become his greatest self.”

“At times it seems like a Hungarian version of Tom Sawyer, then a WWII version of All Quiet on the Western Front, then even a German-Canadian version of a Horatio Alger story. In short, it has a little bit of everything about the life and travails of a very interesting person.”