Authors Reviewed Examines Novel Based on Valkyrie Plot

Jan. 19, 2009 - PRLog -- The Authors Reviewed series of reviews and interviews of captivating books and authors has a review of the new book An Obsolete Honor: A Story of the German Resistance to Hitler, by Helena P. Schrader, at http://www.authorsreviewed.com/.

About An Obsolete Honor:  In 1938, all of Germany seems to be captivated by the pied piper from Austria, Adolf Hitler. However, Philip Baron von Feldburg is a young German officer deeply concerned about the direction Germany is going and is distressed by the policies of the Nazi government.

While his younger brother is thrilled to be flying the Luftwaffe's latest fighter, his sister marries a self-made man with good Nazi connections and a bright future. As one Nazi victory follows another, Philip feels increasingly isolated until he meets Alexandra Mollwitz, an attractive secretary working at General Staff headquarters. Philip finds love and a kindred spirit. Through her he meets a group of senior officers working to overthrow the Nazi regime using the Valkyrie Plot, in An Obsolete Honor: A Story of the German Resistance to Hitler by Helena P. Schrader.

Drawing on more than 10 years of research including over 100 interviews with survivors of the war, the Resistance, and concentration camps, the novel goes beyond the naked facts and the familiar assumptions to look at human emotions, motives and behavior. On the one hand, the novel explores the difficulties and obstacles - both physical and psychological - to opposition and resistance in a totalitarian state. On the other hand, it also looks at the creeping moral corruption and moral compromises that characterized life in Nazi Germany.

About the author: Helena P. Schrader's novels reflect her extensive travels, her experiences in many nations and cultures, and her solid background in history. To these she adds a remarkable talent for envisioning interesting characters and bringing them to life. Readers of her novels on ancient Sparta, medieval Europe, and Europe and America during World War II find themselves transported to a historical place and time that is vivid and accurate, seeing it through the eyes of her characters and experiencing it through their adventures. And like all good novels, her stories raise basic life questions (concerning love, death, honor, and spirituality) that transcend any one place or time. She is commissioned in the U.S. Foreign Service and currently resides with her husband in Lagos, Nigeria.

The book is reviewed by author Stuart Nachbar, who blogs on education and politics for Educated Quest and wrote The Sex Ed Chronicles.

You can read the latest interviews and reviews of both fiction and non-fiction works at Authors Reviewed.

About Authors Reviewed: Web 2.0 is here for authors, publishers and the reader community.  http://www.authorsreviewed.com is a membership-type website that is part of the Virtual Book Review Network, which encourages members to engage with each other, create their own blogs, chat in the forum and be a vocal part of the website. Interviews and reviews of well-known authors and books are updated regularly here; as well as the first-time author who no one has heard of  - yet.