Rue the Day — Ralph Freedman

Wars, all wars, create winds of chaos that blow long after the last shot is fired. World War II was no exception. Jacob and Francesca, like Dante's Paolo and Francesca, are caught up in those winds. Jacob, haunted by overwhelming fear caused by persecution in his past, damages himself and those he loves. Francesca, hardened by the war, finds it impossible to forgive. "Rue the Day is a novel of compelling moral force. ...We have inherited the Cold War politics that turned friend against friend and husband against wife. In our troublous times, Freedman's novel reminds us of the indelible wounds to the soul and the destruction of lives wrought by unchallenged evil, but also of the possibility for redemption." Anca Vlasopolos, author of The New Bedford Samurai