When an American-born Japanese family and a native-born German family become friends, prejudice surrounds them both. The indignities of forced detention and the horrors of war are hard to escape. This is the basis for a thought-provoking exploration of a small Oregon farming community in the 1940s. Well-researched, this novel will touch your heart.
 

You will want to place Echoes of Silence on your to-read list for several reasons, among them: it is a compelling read and the topic is timely. One of the ironies of recent history is that our government has finally accepted its responsibility for the internment of innocent Japanese-Americans during World War II.

In her novel about the Japanese internment, Carter reminds us what happens when emotions, fueled by government policy and inflammatory rhetoric, run high.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry were indiscriminately taken from their homes and relocated to internment camps in several western states.

During the closing months of the war, a small group of Japanese are placed in a work camp on the outskirts of McGregor, a farming community in Eastern Oregon. Skillfully juxtaposing the lives of German native Konrad Bauer’s family and American-born Thomas Saito’s family, Carter spins a tale of contrast, passion, and intolerance.

By the time the U.S. enters the war, Konrad Bauer has established himself as a successful farmer and influential community member. It isn’t until he employs the Saitos to help in the sugar beet fields that ghosts from his past return to haunt him. Konrad’s departure from Germany was sudden and precipitated by a series of events that he and his wife have deliberately hidden from their children and neighbors. To further complicate matters, a young German immigrant holds Konrad personally responsible for the death of his father back in Germany and arrives in McGregor to settle accounts.

Disagreements about the camp and its inhabitants quickly divide the small town. Immediately, there are obvious but subdued rumblings against the Japanese residents of the camp. Feelings intensify after the son of Konrad’s best friend and neighbor is killed in the Pacific. Suddenly, not only are the Japanese targets for pointed remarks and cold shoulders, but also the Bauers for being sympathetic to their plight. However, it is after the war that serious trouble brews when the camp residents decide to stay in the area. After townspeople learn that Konrad has assisted the Japanese in a land purchase and that his oldest son is involved in a blossoming romance with Saito’s daughter, the resentment and prejudice boil over in a climactic and surprise ending that will have the reader turning pages to see what comes next.

While this novel is a work of fiction, Carter has captured the climate that existed in post-World War II America. This book serves as a timely reminder that good people often make wrong choices in a politically charged environment. Law-abiding U.S. citizens have lost their constitutional rights in the past and may do so again in a national atmosphere of fear and prejudice. Echoes of Silence was not written as a response to September 11, but its message could not be more pertinent.

Cindy Bonner,
Author of, Lily and Right From Wrong

Echoes of Silence is an insightful novel of courage, compassion, but above all, it is about the complex choices we all make without realizing the effect on future generations. Nadene R. Carter writes with specific honesty and appealing tenderness about a time, a place, and a family, yet also about a larger subject that we, as a Nation, cannot afford to forget.

Sammie Justesen
Author of, Common Threads

In each of our lives there are moments of clarity; we arrive at a junction and choose which path to take. And so it is with the residents of McGregor, Oregon, during the summer of 1945. Filled with marvelous characters, suspense, and tender romance, Echoes of Silence offers psychological insight into the plight of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This solidly crafted story has enough subplots to keep you guessing, and the ending will touch your heart. I recommend this book with two thumbs up!

Kishan Handoo, Visiting Professor from Kashmir
Utah State University

Echoes of Silence presents a thrilling and remarkable story of Americans of diverse background who, through facing humiliating conditions and shameful prejudice, courageously win hearts and minds and erase the stigma brought on by racist hysteria. This book mixes literary art, fiction and drama with pathos and action to reveal a heart-rending story of a turbulent period of American history.
 

Midwest Review,
Oregon, WI

Set during World War II, Echoes of Silence by Nadene R. Carter is an impressively written historical novel that follows three people, all of whom are a kind of ‘prisoner of war’ in one manner or another. One is enslaved by his own past; a teenaged Japanese girl is interned along with thousands of other Japanese-Americans who have committed no crime; and yet another is held fast by his own hatred. A profound and sweeping tale of human strengths and failings, offering unique perspectives into their individual plights when Japanese-Americans were held captive by their own nation—throughout the years both during and after the war.