I’m a fan of Lynn Austin, and Long Way Home may be my favorite book to date. This inspirational WWII novel moved my compassion meter and helped me better understand the terrible price soldiers paid during and after the Second World War.
Jimmy Barnett was one of these sufferers. As a medic who took care of injured soldiers and others better than he took care of himself, Jimmy returned home an emotionally damaged person. Austin does an excellent job of showing readers the aftermath and effects of war from the perspective of a wounded soldier following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Through the eyes of Peggy Serrano, readers find out how her friend Jimmy Barnett, the veterinarian’s son and the boy across the street, suffered compassion fatigue and combat stress. Throughout the novel, I learned more about World War II-era VA hospital practices such as insulin therapies and brain surgeries on veterans returning home from war—practices that supposedly helped broken soldiers return to a more normal condition after the devastation. While Peggy, Jimmy, and his parents navigate the aftermath of war, the novel’s second timeline takes us back to the conflict’s origins. We travel with Gisela Wolff as she and her family escape Germany and struggle to find safety in Havana, Cuba.
If you like World War II inspirational fiction, you will likely appreciate Long Way Home by Lynn Austin. Other Austin recommendations include Chasing Shadows and her equally moving novel, If I Were You. Additional WWII historical fiction books you might enjoy include The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin, and The Women, The Nightingale, and Home Front by Kristin Hannah. For other excellent World War II books, you might consider the thriller Strangers in Time by David Baldacci, the historical fiction novel All the Broken Places by John Boyne, or the classic memoir The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.
