Whelp, here we are a year out from the original announcement.
No idea on what the book's cover is, nor has a more expository synopsis been made available. No response from the author that would indicate that there certainly wouldn't be any sympathy for the Nazi party. The book would also take place during Jim Crow era America, where some German POWs in America had access to facilities and recreational activities that were not allowed for the general black public, soldier or not. Not to mention the constant attempts made over the years to downplay the acts of brutality caused by the Wehrmacht by suggesting they were not a part of the Nazi party.
I'm going to go ahead and assume, based on the radio silence, they're heavily re-writing the novel to remove any previous indication of sympathizing with the Nazi Party or with the Nazi themselves.
I have an alternative recommendation, if you'd like the internet to not criticize you: stop writing about Nazi romances.
Stop trying to romanticize a period of time where millions died due to a holocaust caused by the Nazis. Where millions of people barely had rights while foreign Nazi prisoners were treated and paid better than them. The fact that this whole trope has been done to death before should be reason alone to stop romanticizing Nazis.
I'm not saying any of this was the author's intention, or that they're a Nazi, but what did they think the response would be? If the author closed their eyes and tried to visualize what their readers looked like...I wonder what it would be. I certainly hope it isn't a sea of blue-eyes and blonde hair. If it isn't, then maybe that should be the first indication that if you're going to write a novel taking place during WWII, the best idea would be to not make it a Nazi romance story while calling it a "little farm novel."
“In any event, we know nothing about the POW, the circumstances of his capture, or whether he enlisted or was conscripted.”
“We don’t know if he willingly enlisted or was just following orders” might not be the defense you want to go with here.
“He might even have been a saboteur, taken prisoner before he would have brought down the Reich.”
If he’s a member of the White Rose or some deep cover saboteur (and that would be quite the twist) then the PM blurb about “questioning their complicity” doesn’t make sense. Also, unless the protagonist was organizing Bund rallies in her spare time, the use of the word “their” in this context is troubling. And if she was, I would again say that “the twist is that she’s evil too” isn’t going to make the people upset with this book think “Oh, why didn’t you say so?”
If the blurb is doing a poor job conveying the book, then someone should be speaking up: if not the author, then the agent and/or publisher. At this point, the silence speaks volumes.
This is hardly a new theme. Somewhere someone's written a dissertation about all the variations on the theme of POW-local romances in World War II. And all the precursors to this plot. Undoubtedly, many people will object to anything written on this theme or not written, read or unread.
Whelp, here we are a year out from the original announcement.
No idea on what the book's cover is, nor has a more expository synopsis been made available. No response from the author that would indicate that there certainly wouldn't be any sympathy for the Nazi party. The book would also take place during Jim Crow era America, where some German POWs in America had access to facilities and recreational activities that were not allowed for the general black public, soldier or not. Not to mention the constant attempts made over the years to downplay the acts of brutality caused by the Wehrmacht by suggesting they were not a part of the Nazi party.
I'm going to go ahead and assume, based on the radio silence, they're heavily re-writing the novel to remove any previous indication of sympathizing with the Nazi Party or with the Nazi themselves.
I have an alternative recommendation, if you'd like the internet to not criticize you: stop writing about Nazi romances.
Stop trying to romanticize a period of time where millions died due to a holocaust caused by the Nazis. Where millions of people barely had rights while foreign Nazi prisoners were treated and paid better than them. The fact that this whole trope has been done to death before should be reason alone to stop romanticizing Nazis.
I'm not saying any of this was the author's intention, or that they're a Nazi, but what did they think the response would be? If the author closed their eyes and tried to visualize what their readers looked like...I wonder what it would be. I certainly hope it isn't a sea of blue-eyes and blonde hair. If it isn't, then maybe that should be the first indication that if you're going to write a novel taking place during WWII, the best idea would be to not make it a Nazi romance story while calling it a "little farm novel."
“In any event, we know nothing about the POW, the circumstances of his capture, or whether he enlisted or was conscripted.”
“We don’t know if he willingly enlisted or was just following orders” might not be the defense you want to go with here.
“He might even have been a saboteur, taken prisoner before he would have brought down the Reich.”
If he’s a member of the White Rose or some deep cover saboteur (and that would be quite the twist) then the PM blurb about “questioning their complicity” doesn’t make sense. Also, unless the protagonist was organizing Bund rallies in her spare time, the use of the word “their” in this context is troubling. And if she was, I would again say that “the twist is that she’s evil too” isn’t going to make the people upset with this book think “Oh, why didn’t you say so?”
If the blurb is doing a poor job conveying the book, then someone should be speaking up: if not the author, then the agent and/or publisher. At this point, the silence speaks volumes.
This is hardly a new theme. Somewhere someone's written a dissertation about all the variations on the theme of POW-local romances in World War II. And all the precursors to this plot. Undoubtedly, many people will object to anything written on this theme or not written, read or unread.