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Nina Willner

Authors at the Library

Award-winning nonfiction author Nina Willner joins us with The Boys in the Light, a WWII testament to survival against all odds.

Authors at the Library with

NINA WILLNER

Thursday, September 3 | 6 p.m.
Auditorium | Main Library | 96 S. Grant Ave.

5:30 p.m. | Seating opens, Book sale by Prologue
6:00 p.m. | Author Talk with Nina Willner
6:45 p.m. | Audience Q&A
7:00 p.m. | Book sale and signing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Willner is the award-winning author of two critically acclaimed nonfiction books. The Boys in the Light (Dutton/Penguin Random House 2025) was named Amazon’s #3 Best Book of 2025 – Top Nonfiction, and Best History Book of the Year, received a Kirkus starred review, and won the 2026 Christopher Award. Willner's first book Forty Autumns (HarperCollins Wm Morrow 2016) was named a “Top 15 Nonfiction Book of 2016” by The CS Monitor. Prior to her writing career, Nina was a US Army intelligence officer who led sensitive missions behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. After a career in intelligence, Nina lived in Moscow, Minsk, Prague, Ottawa and Istanbul working on numerous humanitarian missions. After years living abroad, she now writes narrative nonfiction full time from her home in Washington DC.   

ABOUT THE BOOK

“This beautifully braided story...reveals the best and worst of humanity. A magnificent work of narrative nonfiction, true to the past and essential for the present.”—Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La and 13 Hours

An epic true story of the triumph of good over evil.

The Boys in the Light follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author’s father, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II.

At sixteen, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler’s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers, factory workers, and coal miners, they were suddenly untested soldiers, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII.

A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised.

The Boys in the Light is a testament to survival against all odds, the strength of the bonds forged during war and the resilience of the human spirit. This extraordinary true story is a must-read for fans of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile.

EVENT DETAILS

The event is free to the public but due to limited seating registration is requested.

Nina's books will be sold on site by Prologue Bookshop.

Parking available in Main Library's attached garage, while available.

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