Saving Zasha
By Randi Barrow
Plot
World War II had just ended when thirteen-year-old Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd, Zasha, in the woods. It’s dangerous some say traitorous to own a German dog after Germany attacked Russia, so Mikhail must keep Zasha a secret to keep her alive. But Mikhail’s rival, Katia, is determined to find the dog she is sure he’s hiding. At the same time, a soldier named Dimitri is breeding a new Russian dog at a nearby farm. So many dogs were lost in combat, to starvation, and in the slaughter of German dogs that the country is in dire need of every kind of dog.
Dimitri, too, has suspicions of Zasha’s existence, and would like nothing more than to add her to his breeding program. He'll have to compete with the armed dog thieves who are also on her trail. Mikhail’s inspiring journey to save his best friend, the last German shepherd in Russia, forces him to face some of life’s hardest lessons about war, hate, forgiveness, hope, love and man’s best friend.
Mikhail
Katia
Demitri
Zasha
Nikolai
Rina
Setting
Conflict
(External)Man vs Society ,Devastated by Germany’s conflict with the Soviet Union at the end of WWII, Mikhail, 13, and his family are struggling to survive in their rural Russian community, where everything German is hated and Mikhail’s father is missing in action. When the family shelters a beautiful German shepherd, Zasha, they know they will be called traitors, but they bond with the beautiful dog, and they save her life by hiding her. Then they discover that she is pregnant.