‘The Secret of Magic’
Re: Jim Terry’s response to Rufus Ward’s column on the treatment of German POWs kept in Aliceville, Alabama (Local voices: Tell the whole story on black World War II veterans, March 16).
In his letter Mr. Terry points out the disparate ‘Southern hospitality’ shown German POWs kept in Aliceville, versus American heroes with dark skin returning home to Mississippi following WWII.
Mr. Terry might have mentioned the remarkable book. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson. This recent novel is a work of consumate skill and certainly merited winning the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, in 2014.
Whether you wait for the movie version (surely there will be one if only for a scene that rivals one in The Godfather by Mario Pucci), or you read The Secret of Magic for yourself, be warned you will not want to put the book down until the end.
You are not likely to be disappointed. It’s a fine example of high drama by a local writer describing in scary detail the fate of a medal-wearing black officer heading home to Mississippi at the end of the war. With echoes of a Greek tragedy no less, the hero’s father takes on a daunting task: to avenge his son.
Ms. Johnson wrote and researched the story in Columbus where she now lives. In a prior career, the author lived in Rome and worked for Vatican Radio. Her previous novel, The Air Between Us, draws on the life of a respected surgeon practicing in Nebraska, her father.
You are obviously a learned historian and your commentary was very informative. Just in case you didn’t know about this book, I hope you will want to discover for yourself an interesting writer doing interesting work right here in our hometown today. History comes alive in The Secret of Magic.
Elizabeth Simpson
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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