Headstrong Johanna Berglund, a linguistics student at the University of Minnesota, has very definite plans for her future . . . plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she left behind there. But the US Army wants her to work as a translator at a nearby camp for German POWs.
Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they’re not afraid to criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts with the men of the camp and censors their letters home, she begins to see the prisoners in a more sympathetic light. But advocating for better treatment makes her enemies in the community, especially when charismatic German spokesman Stefan Werner begins to show interest in Johanna and her work. The longer Johanna wages her home-front battle, the more the lines between compassion and treason become blurred–and it’s no longer clear whom she can trust.
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: Things We Didn't Say
Book Author: Amy Lynn Green
What do you like about this book:
"Don't hold on so tightly to one idea of what you want that you don't let God push you in another direction."
Linguistics student Johanna Berglund is brilliant, determined, a bit cynical and overly headstrong; in other words, she clutches her dreams for the future very tightly, dreams which include post graduate work at Oxford University in England, among other things. So when she is forced (according to her) to choose between changing directions (serving her country) or losing her coveted college scholarship money (the worst possible thing that could happen to her), Johanna reluctantly returns to her small hometown of Ironside Lake, Minnesota to serve as an Army translator in a German prisoner of war camp, censoring their letters home and providing a means of communication between the guards and inmates. Leaving behind a best friend, a Japanese American language teacher at a school for military intelligence officers, the two comrades resort to letters filled with spirited conversations and timely advice (mostly Peter to Johanna).
Things get a little dicey when Johanna's kindnesses towards the occupants of the German camp land her in a bit of trouble (a lot of trouble, actually) and Peter's war time assignment takes a turn into a dangerous direction(his life just might be at stake). Caught between two conflicts, while painfully watching her future disappear before her very eyes, Johanna learns the value of silence; "it's where God is most likely to be heard", a valuable lesson for one's head and heart.
Granted, it may take awhile to rest comfortably within the pages of this epistolary novel, nonetheless, the author skillfully moves the story line along with her brightly contrasting characters and their conversant natures, some of whom hide their charlatan motives quite well. When the last page turns, you will realize exactly what you have just read, for even Jo herself states, "I've found that every letter has two messages; the one written on the lines and the ones written between them".
Quite an impressive debut novel!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. I also purchased a copy. The opinions stated above are entirely my own.