"Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat."

This compelling, dignified and moving novel was inspired by and based upon the Nazi invasion of neutral Norway. Set in an imaginary European mining town, it shows what happens when a ruthless totalitarian power is up against an occupied democracy with an overwhelming desire to be free.

Hardback (including notes) 153pp

This book is part of a book series called Longman Literature Steinbeck .

This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published 2000 by Pearson Education Limited .

During World War II, Steinbeck was a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. Some of his dispatches were later collected and made into Once There Was a War.