Hannibal Lecter Series / Hannibal Rising / Thomas Harris

Lithuania, during the Second World War: At the age of ten, little Hannibal Lecter witnesses the death of his parents in a bombing raid. Hannibal manages to escape with his little sister Mischa, but the two are tracked down by a group of mercenaries fleeing from the Russians and looking for a place to hide. The cold and hunger increase and Hannibal has to watch helplessly as the brutal men finally kill little Mischa and eat her corpse. Hannibal manages to escape to France, where he finds refuge with his aunt. He grows up to be a highly intelligent young man with excellent manners. However, driven by nightmares of the past, he knows only one goal: to track down his sister’s murderers and take revenge on them in an equally cruel way.