My Goodreads and Amazon review of Ella’s War by Rusty Allen (Rating 5) – A Battle of the Heart. Rusty Allen’s unique perspective in Ella’s War sets it apart from other World War Two novels. The story unfolds on the home front, not the battlefield, and a German soldier is a gentle helpmeet, not a feared enemy. In Allen’s sensitive narrative, passion wrestles with patriotism while love confronts loyalty. Like the best historical fiction, harsh facts are softened with tender moments. The tale alternates among four memorable characters. Ella, mother of a young son, struggles to manage the Delaware farm she inherited following her parents’ sudden death. Lee, her common-law husband and the boy’s father, chafes at being tied down but steps up to tend the farm. Reese, their resourceful child, vows to prove his manhood when his father impetuously overrides his Army deferment to enlist. And Dieter, the industrious first mate of a captured U-boat, strives to make amends for his countrymen’s inhumanity. With evocative metaphor, cinematic detail, and absorbing drama, Allen builds toward the book’s moral dilemma. Dieter, a prisoner of war, is assigned to work on the farm. Ella, initially wary, falls in love with him. Then Lee, changed by the wounds of war, comes home, ready to “do right” by Ella, their son, and the farm. Ella is wrenched by the choice she must make. Readers will be torn too. In addition to the main story line, Allen takes readers down lesser known channels of that era, such as the in-fighting between POWs who are hard-line Nazis versus those who don’t share their rabid antisemitism. He also illuminates the wartime challenges of running a farm, racial prejudice, belittling of women, and coming-of-age battles between boys trying to prove who is tougher. As a historical novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I can affirm Allen’s deftness at balancing fact and fiction to simultaneously inform and maintain the narrative’s momentum. The book will engage your mind, rouse your spirit, and shake your emotions. In a conflict without good guys and bad guys, Ella’s War is ultimately a battle of the heart.
A unique perspective on WWII from the home front
Why writers read: “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” – Malorie Blackman
