The Major's Daughter

“The Major’s Daughter is a slice of wartime life, beautifully poised to be a favorite of readers who have nostalgia for the era and a feeling for the intricate dance between societal expectations and the desires of the human heart.”

“The heart always finds a path. It’s like water . . . it keeps seeking its own level.”

Even when its own level is the daughter of the Commandant of the work comp in which you are imprisoned?

Yes, answers J. P. Francis in her debut release, The Major’s Daughter.

Francis has chosen for her setting an actual little-known German POW camp, located in tiny Stark, New Hampshire. It is April 1944, and Major Brennan’s college age daughter, Collie, is just happy to be able to help her father at his work. Her Ivy League education in German (along with her mother’s tutelage) makes her a natural as translator for the camp.

Private August Wahrlich bursts into her life in a halo of sunlight on his golden hair, capturing her attention and eventually her heart, right away. Fortunately for our duo, he also is bilingual, with a musician’s sensitive soul and an Austrian peasant’s ability to work the woods around the camp.

In a story reminiscent of a perennial teen favorite, Summer of my German Soldier, it’s clear their love is likely doomed from the start, but Francis does a lovely job of carrying the reader along anyway.

Whether one should follow the heart or the brain is a clear subtext in this story, emphasized by the plight of Collie’s friend, Estelle. Collie’s roommate from Smith, Estelle struggles with her attraction to an Indian gentleman that lives in her town. The knowledge that a relationship with him will mean the end of her life as she knows it informs her choices and makes a nice foil for Collie.

Ms. Francis is herself a English professor, and it shows in her lovely prose. Descriptions of the area around Stark are clear and evocative, as are her descriptions of her characters. She lays out their thoughts and motivations in a manner that is easily accessible to the reader. She has also done a sterling job of research, imbuing her settings with a ring of authenticity that isn’t always there in stock historical romances.

Unfortunately, that verve does not carry over into her dialogue, especially between Collie and Estelle. Their exchanges are as stilted and unrealistic to the modern ear as conversations between Austen’s heroines, with far less humor. Her men fare much better, particularly August and the other men in the work camp. 

Francis has her fair share of “lovering” between the main characters, immediate strong attachment and unrealistic physical description (that both are fantastically beautiful is taken as a matter of course). That is happily overshadowed by the absorbing story of Estelle and her travails—the strongest point of this novel—and by the exciting climax of Collie’s story.

The Major’s Daughter is a slice of wartime life, beautifully poised to be a favorite of readers who have nostalgia for the era and a feeling for the intricate dance between societal expectations and the desires of the human heart.