Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family

Through the eyes of young Elsè Schönberg-Cotta, a spirited girl who doubts she is 'at all religious,' we enter a German household trembling at the edge of history. The Reformation is not merely a theological debate happening in distant Wittenberg, it arrives at their kitchen table, their church pew, their family's fragile finances. Her brother Friedrich has embraced the new ideas with fiery conviction. Her grandmother clings to the old ways. And Elsè, caught between childhood confusion and the weight of an era, begins writing a chronicle that will become both intimate family record and witness to transformation. When orphaned cousin Eva arrives, the household shifts again, bringing new tensions and loyalties. Through Elsè's candid, sometimes bewildered narration, we feel what it meant to live through a revolution, not as abstract history, but as arguments at dinner, fears for safety, and the slow, complicated process of deciding what to believe. This is historical fiction that understands how children experience world-changing events: with clear eyes, imperfect understanding, and a fierce loyalty to the people they love.