A Thousand Faces

By Kristina Fahl


It’s November 1918. Eastern Europe. Germany has surrendered and the Great War has just come to an end, but the journey of Private Dietrich Groening is just beginning. Headed West, Dietrich enters a village to stock up on much needed supplies, but what Dietrich encounters there is so surreal and chilling, it gets under his skin—literally. Dietrich finds himself hijacked by the Guardian, the village’s thousand-year-old protector.

He’s gone by many names, and hidden behind a myriad of faces, collecting countless memories from the people he’s inhabited for almost a millennium. Yet he knows nothing about himself.

Longing to find answers, the Guardian leaves the village on a journey to make sense of the first and one elusive memory he can say is his: a tiny pinecone, completely devoid of seeds—taking Dietrich along for the ride, whether he wants to or not.

A Thousand Faces is a tale of friendship and discovery, that will transport you from the sweeping marshes of Belarus, through the cobblestone streets of post-World War I Germany, to the misty Redwood forests along the Pacific Coast. Feel the wonder and awe as the Guardian takes you into his world, through the corridors of time and memory......

Kristina Fahl was born and raised in Sacramento, California. She has a fascination with languages and the worlds she discovers when she learns to speak them. Some of her favorite comfort foods include a steaming hot bowl of chicken rice porridge, coconut ice cream, and potato lefse with meatballs and lingonberry sauce. Currently she lives and writes in Virginia, where she is working on her next novel.