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Nina Willner

Biography

Nina Willner

Nina Willner is the author of two critically acclaimed books: THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT and FORTY AUTUMNS. Prior to her writing career, Nina was a US Army intelligence officer who served in Berlin during the Cold War. Following her career in intelligence, Nina worked in Moscow, Minsk, Prague, Ottawa and Istanbul promoting human rights, children’s causes and the rule of law for the US government, nonprofits and a variety of charities. After years living abroad, she now writes narrative nonfiction full time from her home in Washington, DC. 

Books by Nina Willner

by Nina Willner - History, Nonfiction

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 16, 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. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. 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.

by Nina Willner - Memoir, Nonfiction

FORTY AUTUMNS makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. Here, Nina Willner recounts her family’s story --- five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk.