BLACK MESSIAHS

Holmes’ historical novel explores Black GIs’ struggles in World War II.

In Holmes’ gripping wartime tale, the oppressions of bigotry exact a fearful psychic toll on American soldiers of color and on a young Polish boy in a concentration camp. The story focuses on siblings Sammie and Amos Johnson, who enlist for different reasons. For Amos, the conflict offers a way of burnishing his leadership skills, which have often been stifled by “often incompetent White foremen” at his steel mill job. For Sammie, joining the 761st Tank Battalion promises an “adventure” that will bring him face to face with the horrors of Nazi concentration camps—a story thread that’s vividly explored through the tale of David Cohen, an 11-year-old Jewish boy trapped in Poland’s Bialystok ghetto. After a futile uprising against the ghetto’s Nazi enforcers, David endures a series of increasingly hellish camp confinements that force him to numb all emotions in order to survive: “The last time he remembered weeping was when the Gestapo had led his father away.” This emotional strategy comes naturally to Black soldier Lonnie West of the 761st—a gay man who’s subjected to endless cruelties. He dreams of becoming a teacher, so students will accept differences “without identifying what differences I’m talking about,” he tells Sammie in one of the novel’s most moving scenes. “If I can do that, that’ll be a start.” What emerges is a plea for tolerance that strikes an impressive contrast with the evils the characters experience on the front lines. Overall, Holmes has done a yeoman’s job of weaving all of these themes into a truly engaging, richly crafted narrative, maintaining a high standard for modern war fiction.

A sensitive and searing story of confronting evil at home and abroad.