Books like The last year of the war by Susan Meissner

In 1943, Iowa teenager Elise Sontag learns that her father has been arrested on suspicion of Nazi sympathy and that the family will be sent to an internment camp in Texas. Confined behind armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels her world—and her sense of self—collapse. The only comfort in the harsh desert wilderness comes from her relationship with Mariko Inoue, a Japanese‑American youth from Los Angeles who also endures imprisonment. Their friendship gives Elise the courage to hold onto the idea that life after the war will still be hers. When the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise is faced with the demands of a war that seeks to shape her identity. Stemming from the home front to the far‑flung battlefield, the novel examines the cruelty of prejudice and the strength found in unlikely alliances.

First publish date: 2019