 |
Books and films about World War II are innumerable. Perhaps that’s why some feel the need to drastically alter historic events in the name of poetic license to separate their work from that which has come before. An extreme example of this was Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, in which he fictionally roasted Hitler and other Nazi bigwigs in a theater fire. A more recent example is this novel, constructed around the literary conceit of the English mainland actually being occupied by the Germans during the Second World War.
John’s British family is seething under the yoke of Nazi oppression. Then they are told they’ve been selected to star in a German propaganda film. John agrees but solely to keep his family from being killed. Fortunately, the German officer overseeing the project is virulently anti-Gestapo and secretly anti-Nazi. He spirits the Brits away to his palatial digs in the Black Forest, so they can safely sit out the war. But the officer gets sent to the Russian front where he winds imprisoned by the Communists. John, indebted to the officer, accepts a perilous mission to free the good German and return him to England to help the Allies.
Amos spins his yarn with sincerity. His depictions of wartime sacrifices feel genuinely empathetic. Characterizations are drawn broadly but suit the genre. While his exposition and dialogue can be stiff at times, he manages to keep the pace of his story appropriately swift. Plus there’s an honorable quality to his solemnization of enemies finding common ground for admiration and even friendship. This is a period tale told with respect for the period.