The Good American: A Novel Inspired by True Events

The last thing Major Ted Whitman expected in the summer of 1948 was to fall in love with Ruth Karstens, a destitute but spirited young widow with two small children. Recently divorced and newly stationed in Germany, his mind is set on a career as a fighter pilot. But when Ruth stands before him in her mended dress and her proud demeanor, begging him to get her passage to war-torn Berlin, he falls hard and is ready to do anything to help her. The Russians are about to blockade the city, and Ruth is determined to get her sister's child out before that happens. Fate, however, has other plans. Just as her train pulls out of the city, the Russians start the blockade, stop all transportation, and leave her stranded. Confident that ingenuity and pluck will help her to survive the journey home through enemy territory with a five-year-old, Ruth sets out on foot. Forty years later, fate brings Ted's son Alex and Ruth's daughter Penelope together. The memories they share of their parents weave a tapestry of courage, sacrifice, and of a love strong enough to survive insurmountable odds.

Ursula Maria Mandel is the author of three much loved novels, The Good American, Diary of a Naïve, and The Tenant: A Love Story. A collection of short stories, Twelve Quiet Tales, and a children’s book, Bo on the Fence Post, were published in 2013. Memories of VMI, a two-volume edition of humorous cadet stories of the Virginia Military Institute, were published in 2003. Her short story, Deader than a Doornail, won first prize at a National Public Radio contest and was broadcast in February 2003.