One owes it to the author’s generosity—who unrelentingly shares the most intimate details of his parents’ courtship and entry into a rocky, postwar marriage—to read this deeply compelling account with utter respect for the unavoidable invasion of privacy it represents. The narrative is so engaging and addictive, especially with the inclusion of letters written at the time—making this both an epistolary novel and documentary memoir—that the reader cannot resist the temptation to judge and convict the characters for their unavoidable human foibles. However, pursuing that approach does a great disservice to the author and is a major affront to the subjects themselves, for the moments described and the letters shared were never meant for public consumption or scrutiny. As I said, it is a generous act of grace from an author wishing to convey the complexity of life and its consequences for two young lovers seeking to make their way together in a challenging postwar world. The author succeeds magnificently.

Adding to the utterly captivating effect of such intimate inclusion is the vivid evocation of a postwar—indeed, post-apocalyptic—historical reality. I did not expect to be so thoroughly transported into a period of history predicated on events already covered exhaustively in documentary films and movies. However, the war years were one thing; the postwar years were quietly left to themselves. Thus, it was educational and enlightening—especially when witnessed and experienced through the words of actual participants—to feel the past so lucidly in the present. This is a remarkable, noteworthy achievement of historical research, literary narrative, and ancestral reconstruction.

Assembling so much evidentiary material—most of it in the form of actual documents and letters—and weaving it into such a riveting tale is a literary tour de force. One is constantly reminded that these were real people, living real events, unaware of the consequences of their actions, one of which resulted in the author himself. The reader enters not so much a series of recollections as the actual lives of the real people.

A truly impressive accomplishment.