Book presentation, books of Peter Lion

“MERG” and “American St. Nick-75th Anniversary Edition"

“One more memorable and inspiring story from the greatest generation - Soldiers who put down their weapons and brought Christmas to a beleaguered town and its kids. It will touch your heart and make you proud.”  

– Tom Brokaw, author "The Greatest Generation"

In American St. Nick, Peter Lion adds an indelible chapter to the story of the great allied crusade in western Europe to defeat Hitler’s Germany. It is a time and a place where everything is at stake—and American GIs changed the course of history. Lion gives us the war as they knew it, and as those who suffered through occupation knew it. But this is a story about more than soldiering. It is a story of how even in the face of death and terror there are those among us who find a way to retain their humanity and compassion. American St. Nick is a beautifully told tale of the power of the human spirit.

– Jeremy Schaap, author "Cinderella Man" & "Triumph"

“Better than any Christmas fable, this is a remarkable true story that I can’t believe I didn’t know: American soldiers putting down their guns in the heat of WWII battle, to offer a sliver of light and holiday hope. An uplifting must-read.”

– Willie Geist, NBC’s TODAY and MSNBC’s Morning Joe

Book excerpt "The American St. Nick"

Chapter 1

1977

           “It’s amazing we weren’t all killed,” he mumbled with a heavy sigh. Through a light rain falling since morning but now easing as the afternoon waned, he surveyed the dense forest surrounding him and was surprised by how little it had changed. The forest floor, with only hints of sunlight even on the brightest days, was littered with pine needles, wispy ferns and the dead branches of ancient pines stretching skyward ninety feet or more, standing testaments to the creep of time in these woods that Frank McClelland had come to visit on the outskirts of Doncols, Luxembourg. He came here to remember certainly but also to forget and with the hope of finding the answer to a question that had remained stored but never really forgotten in a corner of his mind for more than thirty years.