the debut novel, available spring 2023, Vine Leaves Press
When Ella Hall is left to fend for herself and her child by the departure of her restless common-law husband, Lee Tingle, to World War II, she is able to save their farm with the help of a German POW who becomes more than a helper…leaving her with an explosive situation and heartrending decision when Lee returns.
![Book Cover with graphic text - Ella's War [an excerpt] Rusty Allen](http://rustyallenauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/book-cover-revised-2.png)
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“Rusty Allen’s Ella’s War takes us back to a well-known time, World War II, but not a well-known place for the events of that time, the East Coast of the United States, where a conflict an ocean away pairs the strangest of bedfellows, women farmers, with German POWs assigned to help keep the farms from failing. A dramatic, beautiful time and place the likes and sentiment of which this country may never see again, in full display by Mr. Allen’s excellent literary prose and revealing storytelling.
An extraordinary, rewarding read.”
– Chris Bauer
Author of The Blessid Trauma Crime Scene Cleaners series and the suspense thrillers Binge Killer, Jane’s Baby, and Scars on the Face of God, and co-author of espionage thriller Air Race.
- The Lonely Heart of Wartime The absence of loved ones during war can bring emotional victories. It can bring risks too. In Ella’s War, our heroine and her beau show us just how this can happen. Military families know…
- A history book festival in an historic place
makes us all historians!So, I embraced both the exhilaration and oddity of visiting Lewes, Delaware for the first time on business last month — after only having been there for fun and family… - Within herself and others, Ella must contend with dislike for the Germans and all things GermanYes, of course racism played a role in the WWII era of Ella’s War. In the novel, it serves the circumstantial role of realism but it abounded. We see Levotas,…