Things We Didn't Say

Summary

Ironside Lake, MinnesotaJanuary 1944Headstrong and determined, linguistics student Johanna Berglund has very definite plans for her future … plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she leftbehind. But when the only way to her intended future is through undertaking a translator position at a nearby camp for German POWs, she reluctantly accepts. Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy Minnesota town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they’re not afraidto criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her close friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance. As Johanna interacts with the prisoners and censors their letters home, she begins to see them in a more sympathetic light, but advocating for better treatment makes her enemies in thecommunity. The longer Johanna wages her home-front battle, the more the lines between compassion and treason become blurred— and she must decide where her heart truly lies.