To Zenzi is an extraordinary novel, telling the story of Tobias Koertig and his odyssey through the apocalyptic streets of Berlin in 1945. An orphaned thirteen-year-old who loves to draw, Tobias is coerced into joining the German youth army. He is then mistaken for a hero on the Eastern Front and receives an Iron Cross from Hitler himself, who discovers the boy's cartoons and appoints Tobias to sketch pictures of the ruined city. Shuttling between the insanity of the F hrer's bunker and the chaotic streets, Tobias must contend with a deceitful deserter, the Russian onslaught, and a scheming Martin Bormann--all while falling for Zenzi, a girl of Jewish descent who relays secret news of death camps and convinces Tobias to make a treacherous escape to the Americas.