About the book:
Inspired by true stories, The Long March Home is a gripping coming-of-age tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the power of unrelenting hope.
Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire.
Life in the Philippines seems like paradise--until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: Imperial Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as enemy warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.
What follows will become known as one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare: the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive.
Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire.
Life in the Philippines seems like paradise--until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: Imperial Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as enemy warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.
What follows will become known as one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare: the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive.
My review:
I didn't want to put this book down! I was first excited to read this book for the topic and also for Tosca Lee, as I love her books! While I knew this was going to be a difficult book to read because there would be tragedy, it was also a story about three best friends and a first love growing up together in a small town and all of the crazy escapades they got into. The story's told from Jimmy's perspective, a preacher's kid who always tried to do the right thing but wanted to get away from his father's plans for him and from the fishbowl he lived in. He struggled with his faith and had some growing up to do. I liked how the story of their growing up and first love was interwoven with the war years and the incredibly tough experiences they went through so it didn't become too dark. It's just so hard to imagine all they went through and how inhumanely they were treated. They kept hope alive for each other and truly saved each other. The characters were wonderfully written and leapt off the page. I laughed, I cried. I learned so much about what happened to the soldiers and the Filipino people and admire them all the more for what they went through. Freedom truly wasn't free. I highly recommend this book!
I received this book free from Revell. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.
The Authors
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© Ben Bender Photography Marcus Brotherton
Marcus Brotherton is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author or coauthor of more than 25 books that have been called "fascinating," "brilliantly arranged,"...
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Tosca Lee
Tosca Lee is the New York Times bestselling author of 11 novels, including The Line Between, The Progeny, The Legend of Sheba, and Iscariot. Lee's work has been praised as "deeply human,"...
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