Things We Didn’t Say by Amy Lynn Green was a book out of the ordinary. She weaves a tale using only letters, telegraphs, and notes. This piece of history was unknown to us, German POWs were brought to America to work with farmers. We were taken back in time to January 1944 to Ironside Lake, Minnesota. We met Johanna Berglund, a determined linguistic student that was coerced into returning to her hometown to work as a translator at the nearby POW camp. She couldn’t wait to leave her hometown and now, ironically, she is headed back.
Peter Ito, Jo’s closest friend, is a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to do her best to give Ironside Lake a second chance. Peter has a lot of wisdom: “God never promised us an easy path. But He did say He’d be with us through it all.”
“The past is never in the past. But we have to have the courage to move beyond it.”
“We can do anything we must. How we do it is up to us.”
“Don’t hold on so tightly to one idea of what you want that you don’t let God push you
In another direction.”
Jo was a guarded: “I don’t have enough charm to spare and have to ration it for general
interaction with humanity.”
“Real life is dreadfully tedious, the way it interrupts reading.”
She cleverly began her letters to Peter with German idioms, such as:
“To add one’s mustard=put in one’s opinion”
“The fish begins to stink at the head=the source of trouble is often at the top”
“To howl along with the wolves=do as those around you are doing”
As Jo’s adventure continues she battles with owner of the newspaper, Mr. McHenry, who prints anonymous negative letters about the POWs in the name of freedom of expression. Her attempt to show him the wrongness of his practice is priceless. “As I see, no one should be able to sling mud from a dark and shadowed corner…”
Pastor Sorenson wrote, “Sometimes showing grace breaks us before it heals us. Forgiveness can feel like a betrayal of justice.” Powerful message from a man that lost his son in battle from the same place the POWs were captured, yet he agrees to let the prisoners attend church.
Why was Jo on trial for treason? What will be revealed in the trial? Will Peter survive his time in the army? Who was Jo’s scholarship donor that told her to choose the better dream, not the bigger dream?” How can letters alone paint a picture of days gone by, but connect so amazingly to the world we live in?
Please, join us as Kate ‘adds her mustard’ and I add mine about Things We Didn’t Say.
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