Rumors of Peace - by Ella Leffland (Paperback)

About the Book

"To ten-year-old Suse Hansen, the fighting in Europe seems far away from the blue skies and quiet streets of her Bay Area home in Mendoza, California--despite newspaper war photographs and the tense radio broadcasts. But Pearl Harbor changes everything. Caught up in the fear and uncertainty of air raid drills, draft calls, and the mysterious departure of her Japanese and Italian neighbors, Suse becomes obsessed with the war"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

"One of those deceptively guileless novels, like A Member of the Wedding and To Kill a Mockingbird, that sees more than it lets on." --New York Times Book Review

A rediscovered classic, Rumors of Peace is Ella Leffland's beautifully wrought story of a young girl's coming of age during WWII--an extraordinary story chronicling the loss of American innocence through the voice of one remarkable young girl.

To ten-year-old Suse Hansen, the fighting in Europe seems far away from the blue skies and quiet streets of her Bay Area home in Mendoza, California--despite newspaper war photographs and the tense radio broadcasts. But Pearl Harbor changes everything. Caught up in the fear and uncertainty of air raid drills, draft calls, and the mysterious departure of her Japanese and Italian neighbors, Suse becomes obsessed with the war.

As Mendoza and the rest of America adjust to their new lives, Suse, too, will face challenges of her own as she begins to navigate the uncharted terrain of adolescence. Over the next four years she will confront the complexities of life--the demands of school, evolving friendships, brothers and sisters leaving home, the disturbing thrill of sexual awakening--while trying to understand who she is and what the future may hold for a world consumed by the horror of war.

From the Back Cover

To ten-year-old Suse Hansen, the fighting in Europe seems far away from the blue skies and quiet streets of her Bay Area home in Mendoza, California--despite newspaper war photographs and the tense radio broadcasts. But Pearl Harbor changes everything. Caught up in the fear and uncertainty of air raid drills, draft calls, and the mysterious departure of her Japanese and Italian neighbors, Suse becomes obsessed with the war.

As Mendoza and the rest of America adjust to their new lives, Suse, too, will face challenges of her own as she begins to navigate the uncharted terrain of adolescence. Over the next four years she will confront the complexities of life--the demands of school, evolving friendships, brothers and sisters leaving home, the disturbing thrill of sexual awakening--while trying to understand who she is and what the future may hold for a world consumed by the horror of war.

A rediscovered classic, Rumors of Peace is an extraordinary coming-of-age story chronicling the loss of American innocence through the voice of one remarkable young girl.

Review Quotes

"A book of acute insight and delicious humor. . . absorbing and poignant and full of difficult truth." -- New York magazine

"A brilliant and original novel that will remain in your consciousness throughout a lifetime." -- Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"One of those deceptively guileless novels, like A Member of the Wedding and To Kill a Mockingbird, that sees more than it lets on." -- New York Times Book Review

"Rumors of Peace is a rare book, a delicious recalling. It is a book to shout about." -- West Coast Review of Books