Fighting against time and Agnes, the nickname 81-year-old Elise Sontag Dove has dubbed the Alzheimer’s ravaging her memory, Elise strikes out on a quest to locate her childhood best friend, Mariko Inoue. At only 14 years of age, she and Mariko met in a most unconventional way while living at an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas, during World War II. With both families forced to reside in the camp, they soon bonded over the unjustness of their forced confinement, as well as their shared love of the United States, the country of their birth, and their dream of moving to New York City together once the war was over.

“She wants that memory of fifteen-year-old me sitting at a borrowed table, in a broken world, working a puzzle with my father in the last year of the war.”

Alternating between the past and the present, THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR follows Elise as her father, Otto Sontag, is arrested for allegedly being a Nazi sympathizer, their family is moved to an internment camp, and later unfairly repatriated back to Germany even though they have resided in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. Once the war is over, Elise is torn between love for her country and love for her family, and is forced to choose between staying in Germany with her loved ones or returning to the U.S alone.

"This novel provided an opportunity for me to learn about a new subject, and since I have read so many books set during WWII, I liked that some of it focused on the aftermath of war instead of only the war itself."

“Right now, we are having to put up with a difficult situation that we don’t deserve, and it’s not right. But later, when the war is over, we’ll remember that we didn’t let it break us.”

Decades later, Elise’s Alzheimer’s is working like a thief in the night to steal her memories when she least expects it. For this reason, she decides to seize the day and find Mariko before it’s too late. Is Mariko still alive? If so, will they be reunited before Elise's memories fade away forever?

I have read about the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were unjustly held in these camps, but don't recall hearing that German Americans were also detained for being possible Nazi sympathizers. This novel provided an opportunity for me to learn about a new subject, and since I have read so many books set during WWII, I liked that some of it focused on the aftermath of war instead of only the war itself. However, the part that struck me the most in this heartwarming, coming-of-age story was the power of love in all its forms, the characters’ search for “home” regardless of nationality, and the strength of a childhood friendship to help you through the difficult times.

“We decide who and what we will love and who and what we will hate… Every day we decide. It was this that revealed who we were, not the color of our flesh or the shape of our eyes or the language we spoke.”

If you want to read more about the internment camps, I highly recommend HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET by Jamie Ford and DAUGHTER OF MOLOKA’I by Alan Brennert. I also encourage you to read Susan Meissner’s previous book, AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, about the Spanish flu epidemic in the U.S. at the end of World War I.