None But the Brave

By Anthony A. Goodman

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Goodman’s latest novel uses the lives of a few men and women to dramatize the perils and heroism of the many surgeons, doctors, nurses, and medics who accompanied the Allied forces to D-Day and the storming of Hitler’s Fortress Europa. Goodman handles a broad range of scenes—from harrowing mid-combat to rueful quiet moments—with an unfussy mastery; unlike in so many WWII novels, his people always sound like people … their fears, their hopes, their attempts at reaching out to each other, are all captured without histrionics. We follow our core group of characters from beachheads to bombed-out cities to bunkers—and to death-camps—and Goodman slowly, confidently braids their stories into the larger narrative of the war, with mesmerizing results. As a fictional depiction of the human cost of war, it would be difficult to top None But The Brave. Strongly recommended.