Thanks to the booksellers and librarians who put my books in the hands of readers. And to the bloggers, bookstagrammers, reviewers, and to anyone else who has recommended my books to someone else over the years—thank you for believing in my work and spreading the word.
Thanks to my husband and my children. If we can get through remote schooling while I worked on this book, we can do anything. And thanks to my sister Mindy, especially for dealing with dodgy tradespeople for me so I could write.
And finally—thank you for inviting us to Parkes that day, Teresa and Scott. I bet you didn’t realize you’d be inspiring a two-year obsession!
Although all errors remain my own, I’m grateful to the following authors for their works that were useful in the research for this book.
David Baddiel’s Jew Don’t Count was an excellent resource for understanding the absurd contradictions that underpin anti-Semitism both in the present day and throughout history. Some of these inspired Sofie’s thoughts on the rising acceptance of Nazi party ideology in Germany through the 1930s, particularly in the dinner party scene in Chapter 17. Thanks to my friend Kim Kelly for the recommendation.
In Chapter 12, Lizzie reflects on books she has borrowed from a library, trying to understand Henry’s combat fatigue. She mentions she has learned that his trauma returns not as memory but as reaction. This is inspired by The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, which was published in 2014. This concept gives such valuable insight into Henry’s behavior that I have Lizzie reflect on it to help readers better understand his actions.
Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen.
Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State by Brian E. Crim.
Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael J. Neufeld.
German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era by Monique Laney.
Huntsville Air and Space by T. Gary Wicks.
Remembering Huntsville by Jacquelyn Procter Reeves.
Soldiers from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming from World War II by Thomas Childers.
The Great Depression: America in the 1930s by T. H. Watkins.
Crash: The Great Depression and the Fall and Rise of America by Marc Favreau.
The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America by T. H. Watkins.
The Fireside Conversations: America Responds to FDR during the Great Depression by Lawrence Levine and Cornelia Levine.
The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird.
Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany by Marion A. Kaplan.
Hitler’s True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis by Robert Gellately.
The SS: Hitler’s Instrument of Terror by Gordon Williamson.
The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919–1933 by Thomas Childers.
The Gestapo: A History of Hitler’s Secret Police, 1933–45 by Rupert Butler.
Hitler Youth: The Hitlerjugend in War and Peace 1933–45 by Brenda Ralph Lewis.
The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett.
Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer.
I also found Luke Holland’s documentary Final Account to be invaluable.