Westfallen

Westfallen is a middle-grade alternate history / science-fiction thriller novel by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares, first published in 2024. The story combines time travel and a “what if” premise to explore a world in which history is drastically altered.

In 2023, three former friends reunite at the funeral of their shared pet gerbil. While burying the pet, they uncover a rusted radio buried in the garden. They move it to the tool shed; unexpectedly, the radio powers on and begins transmitting. At the same time, in 1944, another group of children discover the same radio in a shed in the same backyard, eighty years earlier. Through the radio, both groups realize they are communicating across decades.

Curiosity leads the kids to share information about the future: technology, sports, even the outcome of the war their fathers and brothers are fighting. Initially, the 1944 children use these details to prevent a local catastrophe, feeling like heroes. But soon their interference causes unintended consequences — the timeline shifts dramatically, and the world becomes unrecognizable. History changes: the war ends differently, with disastrous results. Now, the six children must work together across time to undo the damage and restore history.

The novel is narrated in alternating sections between Henry (the 2023 narrator) and Alice (the 1944 narrator).^[1]

The novel blends elements of alternate-history fiction and science fiction (time travel) with middle-grade adventure and thriller tropes. It asks “what if” questions about history, identity, responsibility, and the consequences of altering the past. The shifting viewpoints (present-day and 1944) underscore how small actions, especially when knowledge from the future enters the past, can ripple into dramatic changes.

Westfallen was first published in the United States by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. The novel was also published internationally by Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Formats include hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audiobook.

• Alternate history
• Time travel in fiction
• Children’s literature