From the Middle East, to Moscow, to Hitler's death camps, the members of the Henry family face grave danger as they fight in the Second World War.

Sending as a RABCK to RonOren. Enjoy!

Thank you very much! Strangely enough, I had a copy of this already, which I'm not sure where I got it from. I must've got it in a charity shop and forgot to take it off my wishlist.
Whichever way I got the other copy, that one isn't a BC book, so I'll give it back to some charity shop. This one, in the meantime, will take its place on the TBR-shelf. I should get to it sometime soon...

Thanks for the very nice gesture, lauraloo29!

Picking up where The Winds of War left off, at the attack on Pearl Harbor, this is where the American Navy really goes through war. Following the fortunes of the Henry family, it concentrates on Pug Henry, the captain gone slightly diplomat, and his two sons Warren and Byron, respectively a naval aviator and a submarine officer. Thus neatly covering just about everything in the Navy, the book flits back and forth between the various stories, with action scene following hard on the heels of marriage trouble during shore leave, etc.

What set this apart from your average war novel, is the stories of the minor characters, mainly Natalie, Byron's wife. Trapped with her uncle in Italy when the US declares war on the Axis, her situation slowly moves from enemy non-combatant (expecting to be exchanged for Italians in the US) to Jew in Nazi territory. After an abortive attempt to get to Italy, Natalie and her uncle eventually get to Theresienstadt, with all its horrors. Through them, we also meet cousin Berel, who's been drafted into the SS Sonderkommandos; his story is even worse, yet somehow uplifting when he does manage to flee. This book really does deal with the Second World War in all its horrors and not just the glory (or gore) of soldiers!

As with The Winds of War, Mr. Wouk paint a very vivid picture. Admittedly, some of it is a soap more than anything else (I can't quite see, for instance, what Pug's troubles with his wife add to the story), but I can handle that. It felt like I really got the know the characters and it truly hurt when some of them got killed, even the minor ones.
Especially combined with The Winds of War, I'd say this is a very good book to start an addiction to Histroical Fiction. I know DJgib wants to read this, so maybe we can get her hooked too...

Um, darling, I already am hooked to historical fiction. Only in my case it's mainly been England at the time of the Tudors. However, any time will do for me and I'm really interested in this book and looking forward to reading it.

Wow, that's a big book in many sense of the word. It kept me going with interest pretty much until the last page, although I found myself skipping some of the technical, military descriptions towards the end. You cannot deny the scholarship and talent required to pull together a work of this scope, that manages to both give a global view of the Second World War and to hone in on the personal pains that were felt during that time. And because it reminds us of both the magnitude of the war and the scale of destruction, and of the nature and tragedy of the individual experience, I'd say it fulfils the author's stated aim of providing a vivid depiction of the past. The aim not stated in so many words, to act as a caution of what humans are capable of and the particular dangers of acting through ever more destructive technologies, is also achieved (though laid on a little thick at the end), and so I would say this is an important book. I am grateful to have read it. Let's hope, in these uncertain times, that history does not repeat.