“In war there was no bargaining, only fate. Some lived, some died, some were scarred. The pain was unevenly shared, but all, the soldiers who fought and those who loved them waiting anxiously at home, suffered.”
They’ve been called the “Greatest Generation” for a reason: they earned it. There is little to challenge the greatness of Americans who survived the economic Depression only to face the horrors of global war. Never before had a generation struggled for so many years with so little — and then accepted the need to give so much.
In his ninth historical fiction novel, author F. Mark Granato brings to life the story of one small-town family among millions in America who fought two wars from 1942 to the end of 1945: one on the battlefields, the other on the home front. They gave up their boys to the harsh realities of war while at the same time sacrificing all but the most basics of life’s necessities. A gallon of gas, a pound of meat, a stick of butter— anything that was required to support their fathers, sons and brothers and sweethearts in uniform was embraced in a spirit of patriotism America had perhaps never seen before and may never experience again.
And it is the story of an entire nation that lived in terror and anxiety for four long years, and whose people shed a trillion tears. People like the Hughes’ of Wethersfield, Connecticut, one of the millions who hung Blue Star Banners in their windows and prayed for the safe return of their loved ones.