From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II. In 1943, Elise Sontag is a typical American teenager from Iowa—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two … U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.
The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.
But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.
The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.
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I love books that speak of struggle and overcoming. This was a refreshing meal.
I did not know that the Germans were sent to camps with the Japanese. I researched the story.
Good friendship story
I had really gotten into this book and then, just like that, it ended and to me, the ending didn’t make much sense either. If you don’t care about endings or maybe you, other reader, may be able to make more sense of the ending.
What a journey that spans decades! This story gripped me from page one to the end and it’s not soon to let me go! The imagery was so vivid I felt I was at Elise’s shoulder the whole time. Susan Meissner has delivered another powerhouse novel of expertly woven timelines that sheds much-needed light on a part of American history most of us do not know.
I loved the book, and learned so much about this time during the Second World War.
Very interesting & emotional story. Have never read anything about WW2 like this
It was a wonderful story about life.
The historical research in this book brought to light many unexplored parts of WWII. The character development was superb and the story line poignant. A terrific read.
Historical facts put together in a compelling narrative.
I was engrossed in this book from the start and especially loved the deep relationship Elise had with her father, and how that relationship changed as they were interned during the last year of WWII. Susan Meissner did a masterful job of presenting the conflicting feelings of a German American family interned in the United States during WWII — a subject that is rarely addressed in our own history, let alone in our historical fiction. The story had many subtle and emotional threads related to family and friendship — Elise and Mariko’s friendship, certainly, but also Elise’s relationship with her brother and mother, with her husband and later his family. All of these were fresh and well-written, no shortcuts and certainly believable. I’d highly recommend this book that takes a deep look at an often-neglected episode in American history.
Elise Sontag is the American born daughter of German national parents during WWII. Her circumstances and that of her family become dicey when fellow neighbors are suspicious of her father being a Nazi sympathizer, even though her parents were longtime legal residents. The family is sent to the Crystal City, Texas Internment camp where Elise meets Japanese American Mariko Inoue and they begin a deep friendship. Elise, who does not speak German, never dreams that they would be sent back to Germany.
I loved the dual timeline of the story, which starts with Elise as an elderly woman and moves in time throughout. Most of the time changes are smooth but one was a little jolting. I had deep sympathy for Elise, as she is uprooted from her home and then loses her new best friend. I had no idea that German nationals were interred in camps and sent back to their homeland, but I was aware of the Japanese camps and exchange for American prisoners behind enemy lines. It is also incredible to imagine that one could be sent back to their parents homeland even though you were a native born citizen, but apparently that did happen. The grim reality was that this family was dropped into the middle of a war, even though they were innocent of being Nazi sympathizers.
I received a complimentary copy of this book on a blog giveaway and I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I loved this multi-layered story about two young teenage girls who became friends in, of all places, an internment camp in Texas during the latter part of WWII. Elise is a German-American whose father is suspected of being a Nazi spy. Mariko is Japanese-American. These girls become unlikely friends since the Japanese and German families in the camp try not to mingle. But they each see past all that and become the very best of friends, a friendship that will ultimately last through a lifetime of differeing cultures and circumstance. I learned so much I didn’t know from this well-researched book. Susan Meissner is known for her attention to detail and for bringing her characters alive on the page in such grand detail that you feel as if you are in the room with them. You feel their joy and exuberance, and then their uncertainty and frustration. The novel spans a lifetime as you follow the good times, and then the bad ones; the happiness and then the sorrow. This book will affect you long after you read it, I promise. And I bet you will learn things you didn’t know before. Thank you to Susan Meissner for the copy. I am so glad I was able to read it, and as you can maybe guess, highly recommend it.
Loved this book I couldn’t put it down! Keep making more books!
The Last Year of the War, by Susan Meissner, provides an eye-opening look at a dark saga in American history through the lives of two young girls—Japanese Mariko and German Elise—who meet and become friends in a World War II internment camp. Meissner’s meticulous research takes the reader through the horrors of war and its aftermath, as it follows Mariko and Elise into adulthood.
Susan Meissner’s, “The Last Year of the War”, has met and exceeded all my expectations that come with each new book she writes. She has written about a difficult time in the history of America and the lives of the Americans. I will be rereading it so I can copy all the pearls of wisdom and thought-provoking words of understanding that surround the characters, their actions and reactions. God still works in and through all circumstances. Ms. Meissner writes about a different aspect of the war and the collateral damage arising out of it. I cannot wait for her next book.
This book is such a great story that it will stay in your heart. It’s packed full with history, characters you fall in love with. You laugh and cry, you hold your breath until you finish the the page to see what happens next. Just a well written, thought out plot that you don’t want it to end.
My wife discovered this book on the library shelf of a Carnival cruise ship and was literally brought to tears. This is an amazing story, beautifully told, of two teenage girls who find themselves thrown together in a Texas detention center during World War II. Elise’s German family is suspected of having loyalty to Hitler’s Third Reich, and Mariko’s a Japanese-American kid from Los Angeles. Their brief friendship is cut off when both families are repatriated to their home countries even at the height of a raging global conflict.
This writer captures the mixed blessings and horrors of being detained in a place with swimming pools and movies at night . . . but where you’re also held captive inside padlock gates and suspected of treason. Their teen friendship is a poignant thing, and then the story resumed many decades later when Alzheimer’s has invaded the long-deserted friendship.
There are nice romantic detours sprinkled throughout, and so many wonderful characters. Ms. Meissner, I’m told, is a Christian writer, and although this story is not in that genre, it is colorful and sacred in its rendering of a fine story.
This book was chock full of things I never knew happened during WW 2 like germans and Jews being repatriated to their homelands for undocumented things.
I’ve enjoyed many other books by this author, but I did not connect with this story or her characters in this one.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This is historical fiction at its finest. The writing flowed without disconnect, the story was moving and I learned a bit along the way. The ending I didn’t much like, but after pondering it for a day, it’s reality. And reality isn’t always pleasant or comfortable.
The story begins with our introduction to our narrator, Elise, a woman who knows she is nearing the end of her life. Elise is a plucky old lady, and I liked her instantly. There is someone from her past, Mariko Inoue, that Elise would like to see before it is too late. Elise and Mariko met as 14 year old teenagers when their families were sent to an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. For some reason, I thought the book would be much more about the friendship between these two. It’s not, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are reading the book with that assumption, you might be disappointed. It is much more Elise’s story alone.
Back to the story. Elise’s parents emigrated to the U. S. two decades earlier from Germany and are legal residents, but they never finalized their citizenship status. When World War II breaks out and Elise’s father is branded a Nazi sympathizer, Elise’s world will never be the same. In Crystal City, Elise finds friendship with Mariko, a U. S. citizen born to Japanese emigrants. Elise and Mariko believe that life will return to normal, and plan their futures together. But during the last year of the war, each family is repatriated and the young women lose touch with each other. Elise then tells us what happened to her family once they reach Germany. I will say that there was a big plot twist that I didn’t see coming.
If you like historical fiction, or WWII stories in general, this book is for you. The book’s themes touch on coming of age, friendship, love and family, amidst the adversities of WWII.
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