FICTION

The Major's Daughter

Plume. Jul. 2014. 384p. ISBN 9780452298699. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9780698157941. F
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In the spring of 1944, Collie finds herself assisting her father, Maj. John Brennan, with the running of a prisoner-of-war camp in Stark, NH. They are about to receive their first influx of German soldiers, who will be logging trees in the Great North Woods. In the midst of paperwork and translating, she meets August Wahrlich, a handsome and educated young German disillusioned by the war. With her mother long dead, Collie turns to her college friend Estelle for help dealing with her conflicted feelings, although Estelle's romantic troubles mirror Collie's—Estelle is drawn to an Indian man she could never marry. Throughout the summer and into the following winter, Collie and Estelle struggle with their consciences and the pressures society dictates.
VERDICT Debut author Francis uses the subdued confines of rural New Hampshire to set a novel of quiet longing and heartbreaking choices. Through Collie and Estelle she explores what it means to follow one's heart or do what is socially acceptable and the consequences of each choice. Beautifully written, this title will attract readers who like a love story mixed with their historical fiction.
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