THE MAJOR'S DAUGHTER

A historically informed and dramatic novel with a forbidden romance at its center. It will appeal to readers of Snow Falling on Cedars and Corelli’s Mandolin. Set against the backdrop of a little-known stand on the American home front, the novel renders a stirring tale of the indelible pull of wartime love against the bound of state, community, and even family.

In April 1944, war comes to a New Hampshire hamlet when government orders transform the place into Camp Stark. Under the command of Major James Brennan, a decorated veteran of World War I, German prisoners of war will forest trees vital for American war material. Brennan’s daughter, Collie, educated at Smith College and multi-lingual is to serve as camp translator. Private August Wahrlich, known by his comrades in the German Afrika Korps as a dreamy poet who prefers studying music and verse to doing battle, catches her eye, just as Collie’s lovely form captivates every man who sees her—including unlikely industrialist Henry Heights. Collie’s college friend, Estelle, visiting camp as she flees from an illicit romance of her own, fosters the forbidden love. As obstacles mount for the unlikely pair, their passion—for danger, and for one another—only increases. J.P. Francis is an English professor who lives and writes in New Hampshire.