BOOK REVIEW: The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner @SusanMeissner @BerkleyPub #thelastyearofthewar #bookbestieslastyearofthewar #bookreview

A story of friendship, love, loss, and finding out who you really are. Susan Meissner’s latest novel The Last Year of the War follows two American girls who are from German and Japanese descent respectively, and find themselves an enemy of the country they love as WWII breaks out around them. It covers a dark and heartbreaking part of American history that many would like to pretend didn’t happen. And perhaps this is the most important reason this story needs to be told. Beautiful and gripping!

About the Book

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943–aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal 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.

Reflection

I must confess that this is a part of American history I didn’t know much about. Not our role in WWII or the fallout in terms of international relations, that part I knew. I didn’t know much about how we treated Americans on our own soil at the time that had immigrated from Germany and Japan but living here for many years. It’s such a sad part of our history, and it honestly doesn’t feel so long ago if I think about it. Less than 100 years ago, actually. There are probably still Americans alive who were treated this way, so that resonated and I was grateful to learn more about this.

The writing in this historical fiction novel was fantastic, I actually had to double check that it was fiction and not narrative non-fiction! A very authentic story with tons of details about the intricacy of war and life for German- and Japanese-Americans in the 1940s.

The book begins in 2010 as Elise is traveling to find her friend Mariko. They met at an internment camp in Texas, and though they know each other for only one year, they form a lifelong friendship. But the two girls lost touch after leaving. Elise and her family are sent to Germany, and Mariko and her family are sent to Japan. Their friendship was such a realistic and wonderful part of this book. Though the book centers on Elise and her life, with much of it occurring after she and Mariko are separated, their friendship is an always-present backdrop to Elise’s life.

I found this to be an incredibly important novel, because it really helped me gain insight into what people may have experienced at that time, for no other reason than where they were born or even where their parents were born. Elise is condemned in America for her German heritage, but things are not necessarily easier in Germany where she is viewed as an American.

This is a rare book that will appeal to so many different audiences. Fans of historical fiction will obviously love it, but I also think many fans of women’s fiction and YA will enjoy it. Elise and Mariko are quite progressive for young girls in the 1940s, and they are fantastic characters. There is even a bit of romance that will make a lot of readers happy!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy! I read this with the book besties and we loved it! Check them out:

Berit at Audio Killed the Bookmark
Holly at Dressed to Read
Jennifer at Tarheel Reader