Title: The Plum Blooms in Winter (Brands from the Burning #1)
Author: Linda Thompson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publishing Date: Dec 1, 2018
Publisher: Mountain Brooks Ink
Length: 366 Pages
About the Book:
Her quest to avenge her brother consumes her. But can her victim offer redemption instead?
1942. Pilot Dave Delham revels at the success of his historic Japanese bombing mission. Until he’s caught and endures years of imprisonment at the hands of cruel captors. Despairing that he’ll survive, Dave vows if he escapes, he’ll answer God’s call on his life. He made aviation history in the Doolittle Raid. Now he’s called to make amends.
Osaka, Japan, 1948. Miyako Matsuura longs to restore her family’s shattered honor. After watching her little brother die in a horrific American air raid, she’s been reduced to prostitution to survive. When the pilot whose bomb stole her brother’s life returns as a missionary, her thirst for revenge consumes her.
Two damaged people race along a collision course that could bring eternal change. Can Dave and Miyako transform their tragic histories and surrender to forgiveness and faith?
My Review:
If we only listen to the easy parts of history, we will never be able to learn from it or be able to grasp the full extent of it’s effect on the world. How often is war viewed in schools as the good guys vs the bad guys as told from one perspective? War is undeniably ugly. In The Plum Blooms in Winter we see the story of two people on opposite sides of the war with very different life experiences and views. We see Dave Delham, an American fighter pilot who was part of a successful attack on Japan that resulted in his imprisonment as a POW along with several other men included in the mission. Then we see Miyako, a young woman who lost multiple family members in the attack and has found herself trapped in the world of prostitution as she tries to provide for her ailing father. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America attacked Japan; people on both sides were effected by the violence and lost ones that they loved. This novel (although fictional but based on historical events), doesn’t shy away from the content that would be easier to ignore or pretend never happened. There are men that are tortured, women who are raped and beaten. Yet despite the depths that this story will take you to, at the end of it all–no matter what side one is on–no one is excluded from a need for Jesus, and it is often at the end of ourselves that we meet Him. Although difficult to read in some parts, this was a powerful novel with an important message that is sure to challenge and grow your level of empathy for others.
*I purchased a copy of this book from my local Christian Bookstore Pathways. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.
Fantastic review! This book sounds like quite the emotional read. 🙂
Thanks! It was
Sometimes a story has to be told in such a way to reveal all the evil, ugliness, and suffering. Otherwise, readers will not truly understand what happened if it is wrapped up in soft words that barely hint at the truth of those events. Thank you for the insightful review.
Very true!