Title: Things We Didn’t Say
Author: Amy Lynn Green
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bethany House
Release date: 3 November 2020
Pages: 416
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About the Book
Headstrong Johanna Berglund, a linguistics student at the University of Minnesota, has very definite plans for her future . . . plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she left behind there. But the US Army wants her to work as a translator at a nearby camp for German POWs.
Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they’re not afraid to criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts with the men of the camp and censors their letters home, she begins to see the prisoners in a more sympathetic light. But advocating for better treatment makes her enemies in the community, especially when charismatic German spokesman Stefan Werner begins to show interest in Johanna and her work. The longer Johanna wages her home-front battle, the more the lines between compassion and treason become blurred–and it’s no longer clear whom she can trust.
Excerpt
From Johanna Berglund to Charles Donohue, Attorney-at-Law
January 26, 1945
Dear Mr. Donohue,
If I were an expert in criminal law, I’d be sick to death of outraged clients claiming to be falsely accused, and especially of weepy female clients wringing their hands and saying things like, “How could it have come to this?” Which is why I deliberately avoided any of that in our initial meeting, though it occurred to me later that I might have come across as cold or detached.
So allow me to say thank you for agreeing to take my case. I’m aware that representing a civilian charged with involvement in prisoner-of-war–related crimes is a complicated affair.
The following file contains all of the documents I’ve gathered related to the incidents at Camp Ironside this past year, arranged by date received. I wasn’t sure what would be of use, so I’ve sent everything, including some information that might, at first glance, seem incriminating.
Many of the letters I translated for censoring and for the camp records had carbon copies, and the Ironside Broadside archives have been helpful as well. Quite a few of the people I wrote to had other reasons for keeping my letters to them—Brady McHenry saves all correspondence to the newspaper office because he’s paranoid about being sued for libel; Pastor Sorenson hasn’t thrown away anything larger than a Doublemint gum wrapper since the start of the Great Depression; and Peter . . . well, his reasons should be obvious as you read on.
In assembling this collection, I’ve found that every letter has two messages: the one written on the lines and the one written between them. Both are necessary to give a full picture of what really happened during my employment at the camp.
Review
To be honest, epistolary novels make me nervous. Not only is it a challenging genre to write well but my mind struggles to get past the thought, “But…there’s no narrative.” As though that’s the be-all and end-all of a good story! But as Peter says in one of his letters to Jo: “Our feelings can lie sometimes. It’s up to us to shout truth back at them whenever we can. That’s what I want you to do right now.”
So this is for you, Peter: YOU DON’T NEED NARRATIVE TO TELL A BRILLIANT STORY.
In other words, my nerves were for nothing. From the very beginning, I was enamoured with Johanna’s voice—her intelligence, her frankness, her dry wit—and I was intrigued to discover the how and why of her story. In some ways, reading this was a little like being a historical detective, piecing together a story from archival documents such as letters, newspaper clippings and so on, except that someone had taken the time to put them in order for me. And the personalities and events could not have been more vivid had there been a Dickens-worth of narrative!
The story that unfolds is a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to love your enemy, to have your perceptions and hopes challenged, and to live in community—flaws and all. And I have a feeling it’s the kind of story that will only become richer with each rereading.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
Amy Lynn Green is a publicist by day and a freelance writer on nights and weekends. She was the 2014 winner of the Family Fiction short story contest, and her articles have been featured in Crosswalk, Focus on the Family magazines, and other faith-based publications over the past 10 years. This is her first novel.
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