Title: Wings Over Normandy
Author: Harry Gael Michaels
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1948262286
Pages: 92
Genre: Historical Fiction/Politics & Social Sciences/Politics & Government
Reviewed by: Tony Espinoza
Hollywood Book Reviews
One of the most brutal and traumatic experiences someone can ever go through in their life is living through and being a part of a war. Being forced to fight a war for survival, a war for conquest, or a war for power ends with the same result, which is a tragic loss of lives on a monumental scale. Only those who lived through that kind of experience can truly understand what it means to go to war, and yet some choose it willingly in the pursuit of a nobler cause. As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
In author Harry Gael Michaels’s Wings Over Normandy, the author takes readers on a journey into the heart of WWII. This historical fiction tale sees a young man who has experienced great pain in his life joining the military in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, leading him to join the Air Force and becoming a pilot of the B-26 medium attack bomber. From the invasion of Normandy to an injury during a mission in France and the road to recovery after, the young man must find a new lease on life in the aftermath of a treacherous war.
Capturing the brutality of the war and the evolution as a person many veterans had to undergo in the aftermath of their war experiences, this book is expertly crafted and well-written. The author does a great job of elevating the story in a short amount of time, while also providing a fully developed and relatable protagonist to easily get behind. The protagonist’s journey is reflective of many veterans of WWII who experienced the horrors the war had to inflict and survived. From the shocking events the protagonist experienced during battle to the emotional struggles both before the war and after as they searched for a path to a brighter future, this character’s arc really is what draws the reader in immediately.
This is the perfect read for those who enjoy short historical fiction reads, specifically WWII history and personal character studies that focus on a soldier’s journey after living through war and searching for the brighter future they always hoped for, even in moments they thought it’d never arrive after losing someone close to them. As a fan of history and historical fiction, I found myself easily drawn into this author’s narrative and the author’s writing style really made this story feel like a memoir rather than a straight up historical fiction.
A brilliantly written, well-executed and quick yet powerful narrative, author Harry Gael Michaels’s Wings Over Normandy is a must-read historical fiction novel. Engaging and entertaining all at once, the author was able to really capture the raw emotional and mental struggle of those who fought for their countries and for the world as a whole during that historic war. A well-rounded story that readers can easily invest in, this is a historical fiction read that is both straight to the point and yet thought-provoking all at once.