I have read and loved Susan Meissner’s other books but The Last Year of the War is her best work yet! Flashing from present day to World War II, The Last Year of the War is a beautiful, compelling story of hope and strength as the world around seems to crumble. A must read for historical fiction fans!

What makes a book unforgettable? It’s the author’s ability to make us feel, to transport us into a world where we can feel everything, where we become the characters, we become invested and emotionally attached. In the case of THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR by Susan Meissner, we see the human side of one of history’s darkest and most heartbreaking moments and we become as terrified and unsure as the characters we are reading about. We forget they are not real, because they could have been and thousands of “real” humans lived the nightmare of mass hysteria, war and the atrocities it brings.

World War II was a time when neighbors suspected neighbors because of their ancestry, their birthplace and the government fueled those fears, spearheading the atrocities of camps to round up foreign-born citizens, completely making a mockery of the lady that stand in New York’s harbor.

This story is told in flashbacks as an elderly woman fights to maintain herself while dementia steals her essence as she boldly seeks out her best friend from her past, the only light in the internment camps her family was forced to live in. This is Elise’s story, it hurts, it hits like jackhammer in your gut and yet, it is a thing of raw beauty and you WILL remember it.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Berkley Publishing Group!

Publisher: Berkley (March 19, 2019)
Publication Date: March 19, 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction
Print Length: 397 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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In 1943 when she was 13 years old, Elise Sontag was sent to an internment camp in Texas with her entire family. Her parents were born in Germany and despite 20 years in America, they were investigated and interred as possible Nazi sympathizers. It was the last year of World War II. Many of German, Japanese, and Italian descent were being forced into camps. Elise was born in America, but it didn't matter. She spent 18 months in the camp and then her entire family was sent to Germany. They were exchanged for American civilians and POWs. While in the camp, Elise became best friends with a Japanese girl, Mariko Hayashi. When Mariko's family was going back to Japan and Elise faced deportation to Germany, the two girls promised that after the war they would find each other again. They wouldn't see each other again for 60 years......

I never knew about the WW II internment camps in America until I reached college level history courses. All those years of history instruction in public school, and it was never mentioned once that Americans were detained. I can only imagine how frightening and traumatic it was for Americans to be forced into camps because of their foreign birth or ancestry. The Last Year of the War is both disturbing and joyful. Two girls find friendship amidst injustice, but are separated for decades by circumstances and the aftermath of war.

At times, I felt the plot moved a little too slow. Just as Elise was getting close to her reunion with Mariko, the story would jump back to the war era, prolonging the moment I was waiting for. I think my feelings were just pure impatience on my part. The girls waited 60 years to see each other again....you would think I could hang in there for 300 pages or so. When I finished the book and could think about the story as a whole, I realized that the slow build was necessary.

This is a beautiful and very emotional story. It not only shows the effects of war on children but also the lasting bonds of friendship. This is the first book by Susan Meissner that I have read. I like her writing style and storytelling. I will definitely be reading more of her books!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Berkley via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Last year I fell in love with Meissner’s gorgeous writing style after reading As Bright As Heaven and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her latest book. I’m beginning to realize she has a knack for writing about specific historical topics that are not common and anytime I can learn something new while I’m reading I’m excited!

This follows Elise, an American girl whose parents are German immigrants and is told solely from her point of view and spans over the course of almost her entire life. I knew next to nothing about German Americans being sent to internment camps during WW2 and the way Meissner uncovered this piece of history for me was simultaneously heartbreaking and beautiful. The majority of the story takes place during the war but there are a few key chapters set in 2010 that added a certain gravitas to an already profound story.

This had the feel of an epic saga that explores so many themes and issues, from the unbreakable bonds of family to deep, true friendship and even some romance. I was wholeheartedly invested in Elise’s life and experienced such a wide variety of emotions throughout, the ending even made me teary eyed and I’m NOT a crier, definitely one that gave me all the feels. Highly recommended for HF fans!

The Last Year of the War in three words: Hopeful, Poignant and Affecting

Two young girls are ripped from their normal both due to the ethnicities of their fathers and the effects of war. These girls start to form a new normal in an internment camp in Texas when again their lives are upended. There are a few moments in the current day as Elise has decided that she needs to find her friend from those days before it is too late for her to reconnect.

I have said this a lot on this blog, but one of the big reasons why I love to read historical fiction is when I get to learn something that I didn't know while also being entertained by a story. I was aware of internment camps, but had read only of them in California with the asian population, to read that there was more and that more than that one ethnicity was affected really surprised me. I also didn't know about the process to get into internment camps and appreciated that this author presented two avenues as to how these people ended up in these places. Not the most positive points in America, but something that we should all be aware of not to repeat it!

Every book of Susan Meissner's that I read I loved, have you read any over her books? I haven't read them all, but have given all the ones I have read either four or five stars. I want to make an effort to complete her backlist and then keep up with her releases as they come out.

The Last Year of the War


A deeply affecting and beautifully written historical fiction story of a family of German immigrants interned during WWII.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943. 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, she meets fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles. Their friendship empowers them both to believe there will be a future for them together in New York City after the war.  

But soon the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany. Elise quickly comes face to face with the horrors of war. Separated from her friend, Elise struggles with what she should do and who she wants to be. The Last Year of the War highlights a small piece of the World War II story, where more than 11,000 German American and German Latin American residents and citizens were interned during WWII.

REVIEW
She had me at Agnes Finster. At that point I knew this book was going to be interesting, thought-provoking, and moving. And it did not disappoint. It’s is the story of how hatred and fear totally upended a family’s life.

This story was deeply affecting for me because it could easily have been my family in 1943. My grandfather, American born of immigrant parents, was publicly accused of being a spy for the Germans, despite having a son fighting in the war. He was investigated and cleared of any wrong doing, but what if they had decided to arrest him or intern his family?

Elise’s character is alive on the pages and her story alternates between 2010 and 1943, as she struggles with the loss of family and friends and everything she has known. This is a great piece of historical fiction that will resonant with many readers today as over 15,000 children were being held in U.S. detention camps in December of 2018.

Susan Meissner’s writing is beautiful and full of breathtaking detail. Meissner is a USA today best-selling author of historical fiction books. She is an author, speaker, and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her numerous novels include As Bright as Heaven (2018), Secrets of a Charmed Life (2015), and A Fall of Marigolds (2014). A California native, she attended point Loma Nazarene University and is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.

Thanks to Susan Messiner, Netgalley and Berkley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Berkley
Published March 19, 2019
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

I love historical fiction. Historical facts mixed with a splash of fiction is the perfect reading cocktail for me. I have spent many hours of my reading life devouring books set during the Second World War. A time period filled with destruction, terror and utter devastation has been the backdrop for so many award winning books. Not only do these books give prominence to an unimaginable time in our history, but they shine light on the human spirit. Fans of Susan Meissner rejoice!!!!!! Her new book, The Last Year of the War, falls into this unbelievable time in our history. Her story draws attention to the love of family and the power of friendship during war. Once again, Meissner delivers a story that will have you hooked from the very beginning.

It is 1943. Elise Sontag is a 14 year old girl living in Iowa with her parents and younger brother. Her parents emigrated from Germany two decades prior. Since then, they have lived a typical American life. However, things take a turn for the worse when Elise’s father is arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. Once the details of his conviction are settled, Elise and her family are moved from their home to an internment camp in Texas for the remainder of the war, or until their fate is decided. Living behind barbed wire fences and isolated from the world, Elise must try to embrace her new setting and make the best of it. It is at this camp where Elise meets a Japanese girl her own age named Mariko, who becomes her best friend and kindred spirit. Their 18 months of friendship is abruptly interrupted when Elise and her family are sent back to Germany and Mariko and her family are soon after sent to Japan.

Living in the internment camp was like living in a bubble for the Sontag family. With no access to newspapers and information from the outside world, they had no idea of the severity of what they were walking into when they arrived in Germany during the last year of the war. The beautiful Germany that Elise’s father remembered was now a war torn mess. Little did they know how endangered their lives would be during the years to come. Elise’s strength was fueled by her need to see Mariko again. She was determined to fulfill their dream of meeting up once they turn 18 in NYC to start a fresh and fabulous life together.

The Last Year of the War was such a wonderful book The chapters alternate between Elise’s younger years during the war and present day. Glimmers of present day Elise intertwined with younger Elise will keep readers on their toes throughout the book, making it difficult to predict how the story will unfold. I enjoyed how Meissner incorporated what it was like to live in an American internment camp. This is one area I haven’t read a lot about in historical fiction. It also explores what life was like for civilians living in Germany during and after the war and how one’s nationality determined whether or not they were viewed as the enemy. Readers will gain insight on how difficult it was to be loyal to your country, yourself and to mankind during this difficult chapter in our history. This story captivated me from the first few pages. Meissner writes with pure love and grace. Her story comes instantly to life from the very beginning. The Last Year of the War is a beautiful story that was easy to read and digest. I looked forward to reading this book every time I picked it up. It wasn’t long at all before I finished the last page of yet again…...another magnificent Susan Meissner book.

I now wait with bated breath for her next novel. Good Grief…….I hope she is a fast writer!

The Last Year of the War asks the question...where is home? Is it a place or a feeling? Is it the family you were born into? Or the family you found along the way? The story is told by Elise in dual timeline from present (2010) to past (beginning in 1943) and follows Elise's journey from an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas to war-torn Germany to California.

As Elise learns that she has Alzheimer's, she revisits her past hoping to find the one friend, Mariko, she met while in an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas.

While I found some parts of this story interesting and engaging, other parts seemed to be drawn out a bit too much. I would have liked a little more of the present, and a little more of Elise's adult life.

Thank you to the author and publisher for an advanced copy; all opinions are my own.

Even though 81 year old Elise's memory is being ravaged by Alzheimer's, she is still determined to find her childhood friend, Mariko. She and Mariko met and bonded in a most unconventional way when they were only 14 while living at an internment camp in Texas during World War II. Is Mariko still alive? If so, will they be reunited before Elise's memory fades away forever? Find out in this heartwarming coming-of-age story about how the strength of a friendship can see you through the difficult times!

I knew about the 120,000 Japanese Americans that were unjustly held in these camps but don't recall hearing that German Americans were also detained for being possible Nazi sympathizers. I liked learning about this portion of history and, since I've read so many books set during WWII, I was happy that some of this one focused on the aftermath of war.

If you want to read more about the internment camps, I would highly recommend Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (4 stars) by Jamie Ford and Daughter of Moloka'i (4 stars) by Alan Brennert.

Location: California (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Iowa (Davenport), Texas (Crystal City), Germany (Stuttgart, Pforzheim, and Munich)

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Very good book for those interested in a little known aspect of WWII. Crystal City, Texas was an internment camp for German, Italian and Japanese families during the war. Many of these families were repatriated back to their home countries. Although this is fiction it is based on an actual place and depicts the friendship of two American born teens who have had their lives disrupted. A very good read

I am so disappointed in this book. It's skates the surface emotionally of what it must have been like to live in an American internment camp and forced to repatriate to Germany in the final year of the war. I wanted to care about what was happening to Elsie and Mariko, but the story is just a recitation of what happened with no emotional connection to the events.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely breathtaking. Beautifully told and so heartbreaking lovely, The Last Year of the War is a book that will not only open your eyes but touch your soul.

Poignant, heart wrenching, and so very moving, it is a book that I am so very glad I took the time to read.

Meissner has always impressed me with her beautifully written and thought out stories but she truly stunned with this The Last Year of the War.

I can't even begin to explain how touching this story was and how much it both moved and resonated with me.

One I will soon not be forgetting and one I know I will be thinking on for days, weeks, maybe even months after.

As an Iowa girl and a Susan Meissner fan, this book was a must read for me and greatly anticipated. This departs in style from Meissner's previous work and follows a dual timeline for just one person, German-American Elise Sontag Dove. In 2010, her closest companion is Agnes (her nickname for Alzheimer's), but Elise is determined to track down her old friend Mariko. Meanwhile we learn of Elise's life before and after Mariko in a concurrent plot thread. Viewing WW II through the eyes of someone like Elise is unsettling. You find a new empathy for those society may have labelled your enemy. A clear demonstration of the power of books and historical fiction especially. Fans of this book can view Crystal City and repatriation from the Japanese viewpoint in "The Diplomat's Daughter" by Karin Tanabe.

A big thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of this book in exhange for an honest review.

I have long enjoyed Susan Meissner's books; always something different, they make you think, I often find myself "living" with her characters in my brain and on my mind for a while after I am done reading. This book was no exception.

Teenager Elise Sontag is living a content and hopeful life in Iowa with her parents and younger brother. When her beloved father is taken away by the police for his ties to native Germany, her family is devastated and soon moves to live with him in an interment camp. There Elise meets Mariko Inoue from Los Angeles. Even though their parents are legal US residents, are in no way sympathizers with the enemies in the war, and both families dearly love America, they and many like them are exchanged with POW's and returned to their "home" country. Elise was born in the United States, does not speak German, and the family is unwittingly being sent directly to a war zone.

The book bounces back and forth between present day Elise (in her 80's with Alzheimer's that she has named Agatha, after a girl in school who stole things) and the story of their friendship. Her journey takes many twist and turns, many of them quite unexpected. The author deftly weaves the two together in a way that keeps you engaged and reveals things at a perfect pace.

This book was thought provoking, eye opening to a part of history I knew little about, and engaging all the way through. I highly recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this book by Berkley Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, so this is one of my favorite historical fiction books to date! I loved this book! I was raving about it to my fellow book lovers long before I even know how it would end. Then after finishing, I loved it even more and reiterated to them that they HAVE to read it the day it is released!

This story is told from the perspective of Elise in alternating timelines. We start out by meeting Elise near the end years of her life and Alzheimer's is slowly taking her memories from her. Knowing that her past will soon be erased from her mind she sets out to find a childhood friend she hasn't seen since she was a teenager.

As the story unfolds we are taken back to Elise's childhood before the United States entered WWII. We learn about her family and friends and what lead to her and her family being in a WWII US Internment camp in Texas.

I expected the bulk of this book to be about the friendship between a German- American girl and a Japanese-American girl during war time. This story was about so much more than that. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the girls are then ripped apart and their friendship during that short time is what shapes the rest of Elise's life. It is an amazing story, and I found myself thinking about this book long after I closed the last page.

I have never read a historical fiction book told from the perspective of an American teenager (both girls were born in the US) living life in an internment camp. It was a part of the war I was aware of, but until now had never put myself inside to "experience" such a journey. I really appreciated the experience that is rarely talked about or even taught in public schools.

There are so many more parts of this book I am dying to discuss with anyone who will listen, but I hate giving away spoilers, so I will simply say READ IT! You will not be disappointed! A 5 star read!

The Last Year of the War is due to be released on March 19, 2019 here in the US so preorder it now!

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me an egalley to read and give my honest review.

Happy Reading!

After reading the first line I was compelled to read more, “I’ve a thief to thank for finding the one person I need to see before I die.”

This author masterfully blends the past (1943) with present events in the life of main character Else Sontag as she searches for a long-lost friend named Mariko Inoue Hayashi. They met and became fast friends after the attack on Pearl Harbor in the internment camp. Most of this novel was told through the eyes of teenage Else and some in 90-year-old Else’s voice where the Dr. tells her she has Alzheimer’s. I liked Else’s spunk and attitude when she says, “I’ve named my diagnosis after a girl at my Junior High School in Daven port – Agnes Finster – who was forever taking things that didn’t belong to her out of lockers. My own Agnes will be the death of me” ---“Agnes will swallow me whole, inch by inch. Every day a little more. She will become stronger and I will become weaker…. I will forget forever the important things. The things that matter.”

The urgency to find her friend Mariko before she forgets - was real. She had something important to give her. Else sets out on a secret journey her family knows nothing about; using techniques she’s learned to keep her on track to the mission at hand should she forget.

Everything changed after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Readers get a front row seat at Else’s house 1934 when their home was invaded by “FBI agents on a mission to find dirt on her daddy and arrest him as being an enemy alien suspected of subversive crimes, against the United States of America…”

Else and her family were abandoned, left to fend for themselves. They would soon learn their assets would be frozen, his passport seized, and his mail censored, Papa kept saying, “It’s alright, Freda. I’ve done nothing wrong:” to comfort his wife and family. Rumors abound and everyone was afraid and didn’t trust anyone else.

I had never read anything about the internment camps, how America created them and who they put inside. One day this German couple who has done everything they could to embrace the American language and ways of life to obtain the American dream.

The FBI first takes him to a detention camp in North Dakota. Then later to Crystal City were hundreds of other people and nationalities were taken German, Japanese, a handful of Italian nationals and their wives and American-born children. It didn’t matter how long they’d lived in America. They were still German’s. Else’s parents lived there for 18 years.

Fear and panic seized the world after Pearl Harbor. Susan Meissner tells this first-person account through teenage Else’s eyes and understanding. Readers get a front row seat and sometimes walking in the shoes of this young lady and her family as they try to make sense of why the are being taken from the only home in Arizona, they’ve known for 15 years and then placed in a family camp with a fence and guards. Their heads spin as they learn the rules they must follow at this camp. Else keeps saying, “This isn’t fair. We did nothing wrong.”

These were dark times and people did some pretty crazy fear driven things trying to get control. I’m not a history buff but this heart-wrenching tale helped me learn so much about this time period and how after the war people where shipped places they didn’t want to go.

It was agonizing for the families, relationships and business. People were left to put the pieces of their lives back together after the war ended. I love learning about history through this powerful, poignant historical fiction depicting things as they were through characters I cared about. This story and the situation will stay with me for a long time.
This makes for a fascinating read and one that would work well for book club. I highly recommend this novel. It’s a must read.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins! www.bookfun.org
The Book Club Network blog www.psalm516.blogspot.com
Book Fun Magazine https://www.bookfun.org/page/past-issues-book-fun-mag

There are mirrors of two kinds; the kind you look into to see what you look like, and the kind you look into to see what other people think you look like. This is how the teenage girls, Elise and Mariko, felt in The Last Year of the War. The two became friends at an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas, of all the unlikely places. Elise, the daughter of German immigrants who came to America in 1925, had grown up in Davenport, Iowa. Mariko, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, who found their way to Los Angeles and then to Little Tokyo, lived above the family’s vegetable and herb shop, went to school, spoke Japanese and English and dreamed of going to a university and becoming successful. This American dream changed drastically for both girls on the morning of December 7, 1941, with the surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The Last Year of the War is a deeply emotional and mindful accounting of the fear and heartbreak that the families of German and Japanese heritage endured during World War ll, here in the U. S. and abroad. The vivid description of the repatriation of the families of Elise and Mariko and so many others, aids the understanding of what was happening to our friends and neighbors, as they simply disappeared from schools and communities. The girls and their families were given very little information regarding the war while in Crystal City. Later, after crossing the ocean and learning of what had happened in Europe, Elise is still writing to Mariko and hoping to one day be united in New York City, as they had planned. What a journey these girls and their families survive; the deprivations of war, and the realization that love “bears all things.” This Grateful Reader gained so much insight from this novel; I highly recommend it!

Susan Meissner’s THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR is a moving account of an important, and little-known, chapter in WWII history—the US imprisonment of German immigrants and their families. Elise Sontag, battling the cruelty of dementia as it slowly steals her memories, determines to reconnect with the friend she met in an internment camp in Texas during WWII when she was a teenager, a friend lost during a repatriation process that forced Elise to a country she did not know, whose language she did not speak, in the violent final year of the war. Slowly, she builds a life from the rubble, never forgetting the friend who first urged her to believe in herself. An inspiring, deeply felt story of enduring friendship and courage in the face of extraordinary challenge.

Elise Sontag is a German –American teenager born in the United States to parents who retained their German citizenship and whose father was a chemical engineer in an American company in the United States. She meets her best friend Mariko Inoue, a Japanese- American teenager born to parents with U.S. citizenship. They meet in an internment camp during the last year of World War II, where their families are confined because they are suspected of passing information to their respective countries. How they cope with this confinement and how their friendship develops is told by Elise in flashback format. They lose touch after the war and Elise now a woman in her 80’s decides to try to find her long lost friend before Alzheimer’s disease takes her mind completely away. She finds a connection to Mariko in San Francisco and sneaks away from her wonderful niece and nephew and her privileged life to accomplish her last goal. It is a beautiful story of love, friendship and endurance; despite the many setbacks they experience. Don’t miss this story; it is truly a treasure.

This heart-wrenching new novel by Susan Meissner tells of the story of two American born teen-age girls, who along with their families, are forced in to Crystal City a WWI internment camp in Texas. Elise Sontag from Davenport, Iowa is the daughter of German nationals, while Mariko Inoue’s parents are from Japan though she was born and raised in Los Angeles. Trying to survive the brutal Texan heat and the harsh realities of being wrenched from the lives and forced into confinement, the two girls form a close bond despite their different backgrounds. Both families are eventually repatriated, Elise to Germany and Mariko to Japan, despite the war still raging around the world. The novel than turns to Elisa’s life in a country she has never known, her return to American with the aid of a GI stationed in Germany and her efforts to build a new life for herself in a country that had turned their back to her. Though she loses touch with Mariko, we find during the chapters that deal with the current day, Elise, now an 81-year-old widow, uses the internet to track her friend down, and finally try to find the closure she has always needed.

This was an excellently researched and compelling story. The story of the Germans and Italians sent to the internment camps is a new approach and many may not be aware of the forced repatriation to a Germany still being bombed by the Allies. There are many themes addressed in the beautifully written novel: themes of friendship, family, bravery, identity; as well as a new telling of a low point in American history and the treatment of our fellow human beings.

Meissner perfectly blends fact with fiction, creating sympathetic characters and a strong sense of time and place. Whether you are a fan of Meissner other work, an historical fiction fan or a literary fiction fan, please pick this one up and share it! This will be in high demand at libraries and with book clubs.