Q. Can you tell us about the setting and why you chose it?
Growing up, I had the honor of knowing a woman who was in the Belgian Resistance. She helped countless Jewish children escape from the Nazis by hiding them or helping to get them out of German occupied countries. Capture for a person engaged in those activities meant torture and death. To honor her, I gave my main character her first name. I also lived in southern France and England for extended periods of time growing up. I heard incredible war stories from the men and women who showed unbelievable courage in the face of such terror, whether under the bombs in London, on the battlefield or hiding children in an attic or cellar while German troops searched for them. I have great love for the people of France and England, and those who sacrificed during the war. I had to express my gratitude in some manner.
Q. What was the hardest part to write?
When I wrote about the massacre at Ouradour sur-Glane. It was a sleepy little French town that the war had forgotten and largely left alone. I knew I was writing about real people and a real event. I included the death of children, and as a parent, I often still become very emotional when I revisit those paragraphs.
Q. What was the inspiration behind the story? Where were you when you came up with the idea?
My inspiration was the true story of Madeleine Behren, who as a young woman in her late teens and early twenties put her life in danger for years protecting Jewish children from the Nazis. She and so many other women did incredible things in the various resistance movements against the Nazis and their allies, most often with little or no training, counting on nothing but sheer guts and a steadfast knowledge that their faith and moral convictions demanded their actions.
Many of the French Resistance regional groups were led by women, keep in mind that prior to the war French women could not vote. They moved guns, they blew up trains, they killed the enemy face-to-face, they gathered intelligence, you name it! The women of the Resistance were fierce.
Q. Do you plan on writing more historical thriller novels?
I have several planned and two in progress; one revisiting Madeleine’s character again later in life as deadly as ever!
Q. Thank you for this interview, Soren. We wish you much success!
Thank you.
