The Shepherd’s Blade
Based on the wartime experiences of the author’s grandparents and illustrated with scenes anchored to archival family photography, The Shepherd’s Blade is a historical thriller of courage, devotion, and the fight to endure.
Early pre-orders in Hardcover, Paperback, and Ebook build momentum for our launch-day mission: 100% of author profits from every pre-order and sale are donated to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of Herschel.
In August 1939, in Warsaw, twenty-two-year-old Herschel Skolnik is a watchmaker’s apprentice, a rare Jewish captain in the Polish army, and a man with an unusual skill: pressing two blades of grass between his thumbs and blowing through them to mimic the call of a mistle thrush. When the German invasion shatters Poland’s defenses, Herschel trades his officer’s uniform to march into captivity alongside his enlisted men, beginning a four-year fight for his family and his country.
After escaping his first prisoner-of-war camp, Herschel returns to occupied Warsaw to lead a unit of forest partisans who use his grass-blade birdsongs as battlefield signals to ambush German patrols. In the woods outside the city, he meets Ida, a resistance nurse who fights beside him as the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto close around his family.
From the interrogation cells of a Gestapo prison and a midnight raid on a Treblinka-bound death train to Auschwitz, where a hollow marsh reed in a camp cesspit becomes his only chance at escape, Herschel and Ida risk everything to protect each other, settle a blood debt with the SS officer who murdered his loved ones, and cross the winter Alps toward freedom.
Illustrated Scenes from the Story
Selected from the sixteen custom illustrations included in the book, each scene is anchored to a surviving wartime family portrait through Generative Biographical Illustration (GBI). Click any illustration to inspect in full detail.
Sanctuary in the Partisan Tent
In the dead of winter deep inside the Kampinos woods, resistance nurse Ida steadies a straight razor by kerosene lantern light—a quiet moment of trust and devotion amidst four years of guerrilla war.
The Shepherd’s Whistle
On the eve of the German invasion, Captain Herschel Skolnik presses two blades of grass between his thumbs to mimic the call of a mistle thrush before his men.
The Forest Partisans
Operating from hidden forest encampments outside occupied Warsaw, Herschel’s fighters use his grass-blade birdsongs as covert tactical signals.
Beneath the Chuppah
After crossing the winter Alps to freedom, Herschel and Ida wed beneath a makeshift broom-handle chuppah held aloft by American soldiers in liberated Naples.
Generative Biographical Illustration
The Shepherd’s Blade draws directly from the real-world survival and partisan resistance of the author’s grandparents in occupied Poland. Throughout the book, pivotal scenes are brought to life through Generative Biographical Illustration (GBI), a visual method developed by the author that anchors dramatized historical illustrations to a surviving period portrait from the era.
Fighting the Disease That Took Herschel
Preserving the stories of those who endured the darkest chapters of the twentieth century is an act of memory. After surviving four years of war, captivity, and partisan combat, Herschel ultimately lost his final battle to Alzheimer’s disease. To honor his life and help fight the disease that took him from us, 100% of author profits from the sale of The Shepherd’s Blade are donated to the Alzheimer’s Association.