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"Touching... resonates chillingly with today’s headlines."—Publishers Weekly
Drawing upon a long-suppressed episode in American history, when thousands of German immigrants were rounded up and interned following the attack on Pearl Harbor, In Our Midst tells the story of one family’s fight to cling to the ideals of freedom and opportunity that brought them to America.Nina and Otto Aust, along with their teenage sons, feel the foundation of their American lives crumbling when, in the middle of the annual St. Nikolas Day celebration in the Aust Family Restaurant, their most loyal customers, one after another, turn their faces away and leave without a word. The next morning, two FBI agents seize Nina by order of the president, and the restaurant is ransacked in a search for evidence of German collusion.
Ripped from their sons and from each other, Nina and Otto are forced to weigh increasingly bitter choices to stay together and stay alive. Recalling a forgotten chapter in history, In Our Midst illuminates a nation gripped by suspicion, fear, and hatred strong enough to threaten all bonds of love—for friends, family, community, and country.
—Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Four Spirits
"Good people suffer terrible injustices when war reasserts tribal loyalties. ... A sad, and sadly still relevant, history lesson in fictional form."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Touching...Jensen admirably pulls off the balancing act between an emotionally gripping narrative and adherence to historical facts...Jensen’s satisfying fictional account of a lesser-known chapter of U.S. history resonates chillingly with today’s headlines."
—Publishers Weekly
"Nancy Jensen’s story is realistic and exposes the shocking extent of German American internment during the Second War. The story is reported as if the author lived through the immeasurable tragedy."
—Arthur D. Jacobs, Major, USAF Retired. Author of ,i>The Prison Called Hohenasperg: An American Boy Betrayed by His Government during World War II and founder of FOITIMES.COM