Sunray Alice by Jeremy Hepler

 

Approaching the end of her life, Alice Mayes, notorious caretaker of the anomaly known as The Garden of Sunray, is eager to tie up one last loose end before moving on. "The" last loose end. For decades she’s been dreaming of finding someone to share her secret with, someone worthy of her truth, and in twenty-year-old Emily Newell, she thinks she finally has.

On a momentous stroll through her massive garden with her young friend, Alice delves back into the past, back to those five horrific, mind-bending days in the summer of 1944 when she was sixteen, and for the first time in over seventy-five years, gives voice to her role in the Nazi prisoner internment camp tragedy that befell the small town of Sunray, Texas. In revealing all she witnessed, confessing all she did, she hopes to pass on a wondrous legacy as well as validate and honor the mysterious man she knew as Karl Wagner.

Alice, an elderly woman, nearing the end of her days shares a miraculous story with Emily, a young friend who helps her care for her famous garden. This is a poignant tale of Alice's youth, growing up in a small town near a Nazi prison camp after her father was killed in the war.

It put me in mind of "The Green Mile" in the way that someone thought to be evil was actually a gift from God.

It's a beautifully written coming of age tale set in one of my favorite time periods, World War II

when Alice and her mother had to find a way to get on with life while grieving their loss.

I can't say much about the plot without spoiling it for you so I'm just going to say if you enjoy historical fiction or coming of age novels you get both here and it's glorious. I loved it.

5 out of 5 stars

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