An Enemy Like Me

by Teri M Brown

Overview

Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Awards, Historical Fiction - Gold Award

Tyler R Tichelaar Award for Best Historical Fiction Winner

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards - Finalist for Adult Fiction

Outstanding Creator Awards - Best Book Cover, 1st Place Romance, 1st Place Military Fiction, 1st Place Historical Fiction

2023 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards - 1st Place Historical Fiction

2023 Author Shout Recommended Read Award Winner

Readers' Choice Book Awards - Finalist Best Adult Fiction

BREW Fiction Book Excellence Award - Military Romance of the Year

2023 American Writing Awards - Finalist - Historical Fiction

2023 Independent Author Network Awards - Historical Fiction Finalist

2023 Firebird Book Awards - First Place, Fiction

2023 NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite - Historical Fiction

2023 Global Ebook Awards in Historical Literature Fiction - Bronze Medal

NABE Summer 2023 Pinnacle Book Achievement Best Book Award - Fiction

The BookFest Awards Spring 2023 - 1st Place Historical Fiction

The Literary Titan Silver Award

The 2022 CIBAs HEMINGWAY - Long List

17th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in Military Fiction

What Would You Do for Love?

An Enemy Like Me, written by award-winning author Teri M Brown, is a powerful novel of love, war, and the complexities of family and identity.

How does a man show his love - for country, for heritage, for family - during a war that sets the three at odds? What sets in motion the necessity to choose one over the other? How will this choice change everything and everyone he loves?

Jacob Miller, a first-generation American, grew up in New Berlin, a small German immigrant town in Ohio where he endured the Great Depression, met his wife, and started a family. Though his early years were not easy, Jacob believes he is headed toward his 'happily ever after' until a friend is sent to an internment camp for enemy combatants, and the war lands resolutely on his doorstep.

In An Enemy Like Me, Teri M Brown uses the backdrop of World War II to show the angst experienced by Jacob, his wife, and his four-year-old son as he left for and fought in a war he did not create. She explores the concepts of xenophobia, intrafamily dynamics, and the recognition that war is not won and lost by nations, but by ordinary men and women and the families who support them.

If you are a fan of historical fiction with a love for heartfelt, introspective war stories, then you'll enjoy An Enemy Like Me by award-winning author Teri M Brown. This emotional saga explores war and its impacts in unique ways that few military fiction novels do.

This is definitely a novel that deserves to be on a historical fiction lovers' TBR list! Buy the novel today to discover what you would do for love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639885459
Publisher:	Atmosphere Press
Publication date:	01/24/2023
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.73(d)

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

A German American’s decision to enlist in the Army during WWII impacts his family for multiple generations in the stimulating if uneven latest from Brown (Sunflowers Beneath the Snow). Jacob Miller is raised by his German immigrant parents in New Berlin, Ohio, where he starts a family in the 1930s with his wife, Bonnie. When their son, William, is nearly four, Jacob enlists, determined to fight fascism and show his allegiance to the U.S. Though reluctant to leave Bonnie and William, Jacob fears it would be worse to stay, especially after a friend is arrested under suspicion of sympathizing with the Nazis and placed in an internment camp. The narrative alternates between Jacob’s nerve-wracking combat experience (an evocative scene describes him awaiting German fire while hiding in a foxhole) and young William’s fear that he might have to become man of the house if Jacob doesn’t return. In the present-day framing device, set several years after Jacob’s death, William recalls his mother’s pain at being separated from his father and how the war made Jacob emotionally distant, an effect William struggles against repeating with his own children. Though the plot skews melodramatic and draws obvious parallels between father and son, Brown offers a well-rounded portrait of German American life during the period. Fans of WWII fiction will want to check this out. (Self-published)

Publishers Weekly

12/05/2022

Brown’s (Sunflowers Beneath the Snow) emotional historical drama calls forth the heartfelt patriotism of a classic American World War II experience. When Jacob Miller, brought up by a widowed, German immigrant mother, falls for the once-wealthy Bonnie Phillips, the resourceful couple works hard to build a happy household, despite the Great Depression poverty threatening their stability. When their son, William, is born, the family feels complete, but war quickly devastates their simple life, sending Jacob overseas to endure the trauma of battle in Europe while Bonnie falls back on their timeless love to survive the hardships at home.

Brown deftly immerses readers in the daily life of World War II through haunting, intimate details—like Bonnie’s vivid grief at bidding Jacob farewell on a train station platform, Jacob’s loneliness in a German foxhole while awaiting enemy fire, and little William’s concern about being “the man of the house” during his daddy’s absence. Alternating perspectives and timeline jumps add relevance to the present day, particularly when an adult William reflects on a life well-lived and dominated by loyalty to his country on Veteran’s Day, 2016. As he struggles with bittersweet memories of a father who returned from war a sterner man, William’s resolve to improve his relationship with his own son will resonate with readers.

Most interesting is Jacob’s inner conflict about his ethnic heritage, to which the title alludes, and his decision to join the military to prove his patriotism, at the risk of losing his family. The pro-Nazi Volksbund movement, its anti-German backlash, and the anxiety it induced in German Americans is seldom addressed in popular literature—and Brown’s depiction of a unique angst within a much-chronicled American era sets this novel apart. History buffs will appreciate the thoughtful salute to those who served our country and their impact on generations of Americans.

Takeaway: A stirring account of a German American family’s joys and sufferings during WWII.

Great for fans of: The Winds of War by Herman Wouk and No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt.

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: NA Editing: A Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

2022-11-23
In this historical novel, a German American decides to enlist in the military in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a conflicted decision with far-reaching consequences for his family.

Jakob Mueller is a first-generation American born in New Berlin, Ohio, a small town entirely inhabited by residents of German descent. He grows up proud of his heritage but is encouraged by his parents, Hyrum and Elisabet, to think of himself as an American. When he turns 18 years old, he changes his name to Jacob Miller, just as New Berlin rechristens itself North Canton. He starts an “idyllic” life with Bonnie Phillips—the couple marry in 1939 and give birth to a boy, William. But after the terrible assault on Pearl Harbor, Jacob feels compelled to join the war effort and enlist, partly out of a genuine sense of patriotism and partly out of fear for his family as anti-German sentiment reaches a fevered pitch. After one of his work colleagues, Hanz Schaeffer, is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, Jacob no longer feels he can afford the “luxury of neutrality.” Brown paints an ambitious, richly detailed, and moving picture of the era. Jacob returns from the war a man transformed by trauma and sacrifice, a change that profoundly affects his relationship with William, whose perspective the author limns sensitively. But Brown chronicles Jacob’s anguished decision and subsequent service in the war in a sentimental fashion. And despite the sweeping vista Brown portrays, she doesn’t deliver a lot that’s new in her contribution to the vast category of World War II fiction. In addition, the author’s writing sometimes lapses into clichés: “War. It was such an ugly word. Small but powerful. These three letters pitted nation against nation, men against men.”

An intriguing but uneven war tale.

Kirkus Reviews