strictly literary: the whispers of war by julia kelly

perhaps, when i tell you this is another world war ii story, you groan, "not another one." and when i tell you it's set primarily in london, you say, "seriously, another one?" because let's face it, there are so many historical/women's fiction stories set during world war ii and at least 65% of them are set in london. 

but, the whispers of war, focuses its story on three friends, one of whom is german, but who emigrated to england well before the war. marie is no nazi sympathizer, she is not conflicted about the jews or about what is right or wrong about the war. she is a kind, sweet, shy young woman. she loves her aunt and uncle, and does her best to keep her head down. 

but anti-german sentiment is high in england, and the issue at the heart of this story happens to be the very real threat of internment for german citizens. assigned threat levels by the british government, marie is classified a level b threat, so while she is not immediately rounded up (that ill-fortune would fall to those classified as level a threats) there is a very real danger she will be. 

the threat taints everything about the life that marie is trying to build. and she refuses to be rounded up into an internment camp. and she must rely on her beautiful, brilliant friends to make it out of the country before that threat becomes reality. 

the parallels the author is drawing between then and now are very real. japanese internment camps are a black mark in the us's war history. the internment of german people, most of whom escaped germany to avoid concentration camps as they were of jewish or non-aryan descent only to find themselves in a similar situation they sought refuge in england from, is beyond ironic. but even today, the us is holding thousands of refuges in similar camps. call them whatever you want, detention camps, internment camps, concentration camps, the type of prejudice that creates these movements in our government should be disavowed and stopped entirely. 

beyond that bit of politicizing, this is a book about female friendships, loving and enduring and uplifting even when things get hard.

**the whispers of war will publish on january 14, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/gallery books in exchange for my honest review.