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Karla M. Jay

When We Were Brave Kindle Edition

by Karla M. Jay (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

532 ratings

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A heart-warming story of hope, love and strength during one of the most evil periods in our history. Vivid, engrossing!

In WHEN WE WERE BRAVE, we find a conflicted SS officer, Wilhelm Falk, who risks everything to escape the Wehrmacht and get out the message about the death camps. Izaak is a young Jewish boy whose positive outlook is challenged daily as each new perilous situation comes along. American citizens, Herbert Müller and his family, are sent back to the hellish landscape of Germany because of the DNA coursing through their veins. In the panorama of World War II, these are the high-stakes plots and endearing characters whose braided fates we pray will work out in the end.

Print length

411 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 14, 2019
Reading age

16 - 18 years
Grade level

12 and up
File size

4946 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

2020 Pinnacle Book Award, Historical Fiction

2020 IPA Distinguished Favorite Award

2020 TYLER R. TICHELAAR AWARD for BEST HISTORICAL FICTION

2020 First Place Award, Historical Fiction for Reader's View Contest

2020 Book Excellence Award for Historical Fiction

2019 Distinguished Favorite for the New York City Big Book Award

2019 Silver Medal Winner, Historical Fiction, Readers Favorite Contest.

“Combining excellent historical research with a compelling storyline, the hard work of author Karla M. Jay really pays off the more deeply involved you become with the characters in her plot...As the plot threads and connections slowly come together, the conclusion marks the realities of war and sticks in your mind for a long time after.” ~ A Five Star MUST Read! -Susan Violante for Reader Views

When We Were Brave is not a novel about suffering, although suffering certainly makes up much of it. Rather, it is a novel about perseverance, the will to survive and push back against cruelty and death... It is what makes the novel exceptional and compelling. -Daniel Casey, San Francisco Book Review

Jay's…account is impressively ambitious, offering a sprawling view of the wages of war from three distinct perspectives. She ingeniously braids them into a coherent narrative tapestry, and along the way, she realistically describes the human degradation experienced by prisoners in the Nazi camps...Kirkus Reviews

Karla M. Jay's novel When We Were Brave employs a dramatic triangle to create a highly-emotional, epic story of World War II, one that is as vivid as it is highly personal. Here is a moving, riveting tale that shows you how things once were--and how similar those times can feel to our own. Scott Lasser - Author of Say Nice Things About Detroit, Screenwriter for HBO's True Detective Series

Great historical fiction teaches and entertains. When We Were Brave finds three little-remembered stories that beg to be heard. Told with vivid detail and meticulous research, these stories involve complex characters who demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit set against a backdrop of evil and tragedy. - Firoozeh Dumas, New York Times Bestselling author of Funny in Farsi, and Laughing Without an Accent

When We Were Brave is a vivid, heart-wrenching portrayal of holocaust years, as innocent victims grapple with loss, loneliness, and longing. The story is told from the perspective of three protagonists whose lives become entwined. The narrative is gripping and skillfully paced...With complex characters and intricate plotting, Jay delivers a heart-wrenching, engrossing historical read.”-The Prairies Book Review

"Jay demonstrates a mastery of emotion and landscape. The scenes are visceral, the dialogue is sharp and believable, and the narrators are immediately engrossing. For history enthusiasts, the level of detail, cultural accuracy, and research feels immersive. The world of the past spills out naturally, drawing readers into the relationships between these characters. When We Were Brave is a vivid portrait of a time and place with characters who are immediately recognizable." Self-Publishing Review, ★★★★

About the Author

Karla M. Jay makes her home in Utah where she loves dogs and gardening. When she is not writing, she is traveling, trying to see as many countries as possible--in particular, those with good food, great beaches, while trying to find another story that needs to be told.

Product details

ASIN : B07QHGVPPN
Publication date : April 14, 2019
Language : English
File size : 4946 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 411 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #62,977 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #158 in Historical German Fiction
- #793 in Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
- #840 in U.S. Historical Fiction

Customer Reviews:
532 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		17%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jeffrey Lowder

Karla Jay's novel will appeal to hard-core history buffs as well as lovers of great stories.

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2019

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A young Jewish boy who believes the crowded train is taking him to find his papa, a patriotic American family ripped from their Pennsylvania home for no reason other than their German heritage, and a disilusioned SS officer risking life and family in a seemingly impossible quest to stop the extermination of his Jewish countrymen. In When We Were Brave, we experience the horrors—and hopes—of WWII through three unique, but ultimately connected stories. Each is deeply moving in its own way, and ultimately connected to the others.

Whether you're a history buff or just a lover of tales well told, read Karla Jay's book.

37 people found this helpful

Helpful

Barbara A KleinTop Contributor: Historical Fiction Books

Wonderful Story - Wonderful Author

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019

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“When We Were Brave” by Karla M. Jay is a novel that portrays all the horror, grief, inhumanity, and bravery found in a young Jewish boy, a disenchanted SS officer, and a German-American family.

Wilhelm Falk fakes his death in order to be able to surrender to the Allies. He has been surreptitiously gathering incriminating evidence of Nazi horrors at the death camps during “visits” to each camp. He has posted photographs and other evidence to a pastor, a dear friend of his, in hopes that he can reclaim this information and turn it over to the Americans so that they can stop the killing of over 10,000 “undesirables” each day. His arduous journey is fraught with danger to him and to his family if his actions become known by the SS.

Izaak Tauber is a young half-Jewish boy, a Mischling, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, whose father has been taken away to a “work” camp. His father asked him to take care of his mother until he could return to them. The two of them tried to leave via the resistance, but they were found out. Each day becomes another mountain of horror that they must endure. Izaak keeps on hoping that the situation will ease and that he and his family will be together again.

The third part of this story is about Herbert Müller and his family who farm in a small community in Pennsylvania. They are of German descent, Herbert’s father, Otto and his wife emigrated to American after the Great War. Herbert and his brother, who is serving in the Navy in the Pacific theater, were born on American soil. However, his father never became a citizen and the anti-German hysteria that believed that the family are spies changes their lives as no one in this day and age can imagine. I found this to be the most heart-breaking of all as an American, also of German-Irish descent. Although this happened long before my time, I feel responsible.

I found that this novel touched me as no other has. I felt the dismay, the helplessness, the absolute inability to make someone, anyone, listen to the truth. What a great book!

25 people found this helpful

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‘One does evil enough when one does nothing good.’ – German Proverb

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

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Utah author Karla M. Jay is a speech pathologist and has published three novels to date – SPEAKING IN TUNGS, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL (the seque0 and now WHEN WE WERE BRAVE.

In this novel Karla demonstrates her rich understand of not only World War II and the horrors of war in general, but also a keen ability to visualize the Nazi concentration camps and the effect on all manner of people associated in some way with them. She blends three stories - a Jewish lad, an SS Officer, and a German-American family – intertwining them in a stunning manner. She manages to create credible characters about whom we care and for whom we breathlessly pledge hope for survival. Her ability to make the atrocious concentration camps visual is uncanny and immensely involving; in Karla’s hands the reader is there, decades ago, witnessing and learning about a war that changed the world.

The novel opens by introducing Wilhelm Falk: ‘Avellino, Italy November 11, 1943 – SS officer Sturmbannführer Wilhelm Falk kicked away the broken glass crunching under his boots in the shoemaker’s second-story apartment, the shards making faint clinking sounds as they struck the fireplace bricks. He studied the three dead German soldiers who’d never return home. The place Hitler claimed they fought to protect. Not fighting to defend the “Fatherland,” a vague term that didn’t motivate troops. The Führer, known to be more masterful and cunning, instilled fear on a personal level. He targeted the soldier’s family – the potential violation of his wife, the death of his children.’

In similar tones the lives of Izaak Tauber, the Jewish boy in the Netherlands, and the Herbert Müller family in Pennsylvania on that same November date – finding that line of connection that makes her story so impressively realistic. As the offered summary states, ‘We find a conflicted SS officer, Wilhelm Falk, who risks everything to escape the Wehrmacht and get out the message about the death camps. Izaak is a young Jewish boy whose positive outlook is challenged daily as each new perilous situation comes along. American citizens, Herbert Müller and his family, are sent back to the hellish landscape of Germany because of the DNA coursing through their veins. In the panorama of World War II, these are the high-stakes plots and endearing characters whose braided fates we pray will work out in the end.’

Rich in detail and obviously well-researched, this is one of the finest WW II novels that bears witness to the terrors about which we can never know enough if we are to assure such horrors never recur. This is a brilliant novel, very highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 19

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

CCD

A heartwarming story of hope, love and strength during one of the most evil periods in our history

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

A wonderful book! It is so important to understand history because it affects the present and, if we are not careful, atrocities like the Holocaust can be repeated in the future. Unfortunately, history was not one of my favorite subjects. I have learned that a well-researched fictional account of history can be just the answer. This is definitely the case with When We Were Brave. Karla Jay has created a wonderful account of how three families from three different countries… Germany, the Netherlands and the United States remained bonded in hope & love for one another throughout the atrocities that they endured during the Holocaust. While I totally enjoyed the intricate personal relationships between the families that she created and how they all became interconnected in the end, I also learned so many things that I did not know that went on during the history of that period. The fictional characters were well-created and the historical information was well-researched. Read it….you won’t be sorry.

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Zulu Warrior

Emotional Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

Set in the backdrop of the second world war, Italy November 1943, SS Wilhelm Falk had first hand experience of the death camps and wanted the world to know, he swapped his identity with a soldier, he had told his wife and boys to go to Holland to her sisters, all the people he told in any authority did nothing, Wilhelm got himself captured and was shipped to America, he told what he knew and was arrested by the FBI, Wilhelm is put with the Dutch Red Cross who are to inspect camps

Amsterdam 1943, Izaak Tauber 8yrs, his father had been taken away, their house was taken from them, a friend took them by truck, it was destroyed and they had to walk, they were stopped by police and sent to a camp, the camp was Westerbork where they would sleep in a large dormitory on bunk beds, after some time they were moved by cattle cart to Plasnow and given striped clothing
At the new camp they were to be part of German propaganda, the Red Cross were due to check on the conditions, there were Schools, Cafes, Houses, loads of extra food, it was completely transformed, when they left all were gassed, Izaak and his mother survived they were in a different part of camp, Izaak finds his father in a camp nearby

Pennysylvania November 1943, Herbert Muller and his family were German but had lived in America for many years, they were suspected of giving secrets to Germany, stones were thrown thrown through their windows, the family are to be swapped with an American family and they would have to try and live in Germany

All have one thing in common, to survive the war alive

One person found this helpful

Andrea Anderson

Good read and heartbreaking.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

Good story of world war two starts three different story wilheim a ss officer seen alot things in camps and disagree with Hitler and went undercover and to give information what they were doing in Germany he was trying to keep his family safe.helman muller was in usa with his family as his dad was originally from Germany they were hard working but accused of giving information to the Germans and giving a trail in a camp but things didn't turn out not by choice returned to Germany and things got worse.the third was a heartbreak young boy his father was taken his mother and him go into hiding and end up in many camps trying to survive this book connects the characters a story that should be told and never forgotten some parts didn't add up but the essence of this story was there.recommend if you like this type of read.

One person found this helpful

Kats

Good reads

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really enjoyed this book especially the three main characters. Couldn’t put the book down as I left one character chapter and reading the next two to get back to the first one I had to keep reading the next two chapters. Each chapter left you hanging - well written.

One person found this helpful

trixie:

Very brave

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2019

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I would say this is one of the best WW2 books I have read. I enjoyed the stories of the three subjects and lived every day with them and their lives in fighting for survival. A book I shall never forget.

Lakes 123

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Thoroughly enjoyed this book looking at the war through different eyes, but was horrified how Americans treated their own citizens and then did not compensate them

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