MY FATHER'S SECRET WAR
The story of a remote silent man who kept his breathtaking past and his real character a carefully guarded secret - until the day his daughter found out who he really was. A World War Two Spy Memoir.
About the Author
"An illuminating, gripping narrative."
-Los Angeles Times
"Lucinda Franks' personal quest to learn more about 'her father's secret war' is a moving suspense story, brilliantly written and suffused with sensitivity and yearning."
-Elie Wiesel
"Any child who has had to deal with an aging parent, and found the traditional roles reversed, will identify with . . . Lucinda Franks' fascinating memoir, My Father's Secret War."
-USA Today
"Franks' quest may be unique to her, but the generational confrontation is a familiar one . . . to capture something of the person you thought you understood so well but didn't really understand at all."
-Newsweek
"There is lovely writing throughout . . . and this rich tale of war and family ends in a welcome, loving armistice between father and daughter."
-Associated Press
"As her father sinks deeply into senility and illness, Franks finds that her resentment has turned to admiration and affection...A child's reconciliation to a parent is no small thing..."
-New York Times
"The book is beautifully written, packed with raw emotion, deep affection, and newfound, unexpected respect for a man his daughter hardly knew until it was almost too late."
-Booklist
"The tale is beautifully crafted, and by the time Ms. Franks discovers the secret that has been haunting her father since the war... it has become but one of the extraordinary elements of the story."
-The New York Sun
"Powerful family drama."
-Publisher's Weekly
"In this moving account, a harrowing chapter of military history is told as a suspenseful spy story. The author's stake in understanding [her father's] past doubles the book's emotional impact. Ultimately, Franks achieves a universal yearning: the desire to truly know our parents, and to see our reflection in the light of their love."
-Chicago Tribune
"Lucinda Franks has written a remarkable account of her quest to uncover the secret of her father's role in World War II and also to uncover the man Tom Franks was before the war. Racing against the fading memory of her father she is able to construct his war time service despite his reluctance to reveal the secrets he had sworn to keep and in doing so she meets a man who, because of the horrors he witnessed, was forever tormented by his memories Ms. Franks discovers the sacrifices he and other unsung heroes made in service to their country.
Truly a moving tribute to the father she came not only to know but also to love and admire.
I was so fascinated by this book and wonder how many others will be inspired to find out more about the history of their family's service. I'm of the age to remember when these men came home and were expected to resume their peacetime life when they had been through such trauma. My father did not serve but my uncles and friend's fathers did. Their experiences were impossible for families to understand, as the men that they sent off to war were not the men who returned. Only recently have we come to understand how the aftermath of war lingers far beyond the return home."
-Margaret Maupin, Tattered Cover, Denver CO
"Like my father and many men who served in World War II, Lucinda Franks' father kept his nightmares inside, leaving his family to try to unravel the truth of his experiences. My Father's Secret War speaks to all unsung heroes, trapped by their dedication to service and the memories of what they saw, as well as the families who were left behind. In this unforgettable memoir, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and novelist Lucinda Franks weaves a riveting story that is sure to become a classic."
-Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage
"Here is one of the most original memoirs of our time-an unsparing double portrait of an elusive and mysterious man and the daughter determined to learn the fullest truth about his life. Richly documented by the author's research into U.S. military intelligence records and her father's private correspondence, My Father's Secret War moves with the dramatic and moral urgency of a Graham Greene novel."
-Joyce Carol Oates
"My Father's Secret War combines the heart-stopping suspense of a great thriller and the heart-melting pathos of a great family saga. It is an entirely new chapter in the complex history of fathers and daughters-and America."
-Mary Gordon
"More than a decade ago, Lucinda Franks began, hesitantly, to speak of her father's having been among the first Americans to encounter the shock of a Nazi camp. That long-ago account remains, no matter how many years have passed, remarkably vivid and fresh. I was riveted then; but now, having read My Father's Secret War, I am swept away, marked by a scarring past that opens its marrow only little by little, exposing two layers, two levels, of bravery. And two heroisms - Lucinda's father's and her own.
Writing such a memoir is in itself a mighty act of heroism. No one is spared -not mother, not father, not sister, not even the writer herself. Perhaps it is the experience of the newspaperwoman, the mercilessly objective journalist, that supplies the strength for this honesty, this bold integrity. At the same time she achieves a novelist's tenderness, a novelist's suspense, a novelist's art.
The father's portrait is indelible. Through the daughter's reportorial expertise and detective work, every shadowy inkling turns into blazing heroic fact. Even her father's flaws are softened by his humanity. Lucinda Franks has fashioned a noble work of re-creation, to which no reader will be a stranger. My Father's Secret War opens every gate, every valve of the heart, and lets us in-into history, into hurt, into dismay and out again, and finally into transcendent love. "
-Cynthia Ozick
"My Father's Secret War tells the story of a devoted daughter's search to understand a father broken and drained by the Second World War-a father who at the same time attracts, repels, and obsesses her. Lucinda Franks'memoir is a fascinating combination of sensitivity, suspense, and mystery told against the Nazi nightmare."
-Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
"Lucinda Franks' powerful memoir is a mystery, a love story, and a vivid slice of World War II history. A gripping and important book, this is the real story of The Greatest Generation, adding immeasurably to our understanding of who our fathers were and what they survived. My Father's Secret War should be read by everyone who cares about history-not the history of text books, but the history of what really happened to the men who lived it."
-Susan Cheever, author of American Bloomsbury
Lucinda Franks has created a fascinating, indelible portrait of her father --an impossible crank whose secrets reveal a far more complex man, one forever changed by what the military demanded of him and what he witnessed as a result. Franks' details are absorbing, her style impeccable. My Father's Secret War is a stunning memoir from a consummate writer."
-Edmund White
"Lucinda Franks' memoir tells a multileveled story of discovery and reconciliation. It is an important book, filled with history, superbly researched, and beautifully written. The fact that Franks' subject is her own father makes her achievement all the more remarkable."
-Patricia Bosworth, author of Diane Arbus: A Biography
"Lucinda Franks marries her investigative skills as a Pulitzer prize winner with her evocative talents as a novelist in an engrossing drama of secrecy and love."
-Sir Harold Evans, author of The American Century
"My Father's Secret War is a suspenseful, emotionally charged story of the unraveling and reconciliation of a family. I found it compelling and deeply moving."
-Hilma Wolitzer, author of The Doctor's Daughter
© 2008 Lucinda Franks. Design by Andreas Viklund.