THE BEST PART OF BEING AN AUTHOR!
The best part of being an author! I received the following note from a ninety-plus-year-old woman about my book Aaron’s War: “What a pleasant surprise when my daughter gave me…
AARON’s WAR
A Novel of War and Devotion
Hollywood is great at making war seem so simple; soldiers kill or are killed. It makes the viewer believe that people kill each other because they are told that it is kill or be killed. According to research cited in the book on killing, The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman, only 15-20 percent of the soldiers fired at the enemy in WWII.
According to research cited in the book on killing, The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman, only 15-20 percent of the soldiers fired at the enemy in WWII. And for soldiers who have an aversion to killing, the PTSD effects are more profound. Studies have demonstrated that the more time soldiers are in combat, the more likely they can become psychiatric casualties.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Aaron, the gentle soldier, is the son of Jewish immigrant parents. His religious conflicts grow as his platoon fights their way into the heart of Germany. The cities he passes through feature magnificent churches and synagogues; German soldiers carry bibles and even wear belts engraved with the words, ‘Gott Mit Uns’–God with us. Melding with his aversion to killing are thoughts of killing men who worship the same God as his fellow soldiers and searching for answers about who his God is and why his marriage to a Christian woman is forbidden.
Aaron was named by his Jewish father and mother. Biblically, Aaron (Ahron) was the brother of Moses and the first High Priest. The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, lays out the laws of Moses, and fifteen times the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron. Aaron was known for loving peace and pursuing peace. He is also an Islamic patriarch, and the Quran refers to him as a prophet. The story of biblical Aaron resonates today as man overwhelms religion with interpretations or casts it aside. I found Aaron’s War appropriate to one of the story’s messages about Aaron, a gentle soldier who was confused about his own religion in a war where Christians were killing Christians and Germans were attempting to eradicate the Jewish race.
