In this authentic novel, the author describes the arduous period of post-war reconstruction. It begins in 1947 and follows on from her first novel, Terrible Beautiful Childhood, in which she describes her horrible experiences during the war.

People did not have time to recover from the fears and hardships of war, for now other struggles for survival began for them. There were no apartments for all those "bombed out" and the masses of refugees from the East who had saved only what they were wearing. There was barely enough food to survive and scores of people froze to death in the cold winters when there was no coal to buy and anything that produced heat was cut down. Other people risked their lives stealing coal from the tracks.

Nevertheless, it had to go on somehow and "Resurrection from Rubble and Rubble" tells of the difficult beginnings of reconstruction, as Inge experienced it.