For Amy Lynn Green's first offering, this is not a bad debut.
Johanna Bergland is a linguistics student at the University of Minnesota, who is also given the opportunity to be a translator/censor for the POW/labor camp that is being located in Ironside Lake, her hometown. When she is reluctant to take the position, her funding is cut off giving her no choice but to take the job.
The story is told through letters, newspaper articles, and government memos. There are quite a few compelling characters, including Peter Ito--a linguistic specialist for the Army, teaching Japanese to the soldiers who are to be deployed to the Asian Theater of World War II.
Her job entails translating and censoring letters from the POWs to their homes and the ones that come to the POWs. Two of the POW officers begin to gain Johanna's trust, but when those two POWs escape, the blame comes down on Johanna's head with charges of conspiracy and treason.
It's a story that reminds me of one of Aesop's fables: The Farmer and the Snake.
A Farmer walked through his field one cold winter morning. On the ground lay a Snake, stiff and frozen with the cold. The Farmer knew how deadly the Snake could be, and yet he picked it up and put it in his bosom to warm it back to life.
The Snake soon revived, and when it had enough strength, bit the man who had been so kind to it. The bite was deadly and the Farmer felt that he must die. As he drew his last breath, he said to those standing around:
Learn from my fate not to take pity on a scoundrel.
For me the use of the letters to move the plot seemed to make it a bit slow, but the characters were in fact very real, and understandable. Four Stars.
Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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