It's 1942. The world's at war, and even small-town America is awash in fear. . .and hatred.

Sis Greggory's beloved brother, Danny, is serving in North Africa. The war news is bad; the Axis powers seem invincible. Where is Danny? They can only wonder. Sis lives and breathes civilian war drives, trying to keep him safe.

Then Hiram's Spring, Nebraska, is shocked to learn it will host unthinkable guests. German Prisoners of War will be shipped into their valley, to work in their fields.

Before it is over, the lives of Sis, Danny, and Horst, a German prisoner of war, are forever changed.

"Not to be Forgiven" is at once a nostalgic rendering of a child's patriotism and a hard-hitting portrayal of the deep, ugly emotions war engenders. It will make you laugh, and it will shock you to your core.


"'Not to be Forgiven' explores the explosive emotions that ripped through the home front as World War II raged on and on. With the sure-handed strokes of a master writer, Peterson tells of friendship marred by hatred and fear, and of the way in which love and understanding can finally redeem the past. A magical and mesmerizing story."
Margaret Cole, author of Buffalo Bill's Dead Now, a Wind River Mystery

"'Not to be Forgiven' is a haunting novel about how the war twists the life of a young girl living thousands of miles from World War II battlefields. Both historian and storyteller, Nancy M. Peterson, whose nonfiction books on the West are classics, writes how a wartime friendship flares into hatred, leaving scars that cause a lifetime of regret. Set against a background of wartime rural America, Not to be Forgiven is not to be forgotten."

Sandra Dalls, author of True Sisters and The Quilt Walk