Elise Sontag's life changes drastically in 1943 is sent, together with her family to an internment camp in Texas. Her father, who has been a legal US citizen for almost twenty years, is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer. Elise meets Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American girl at the camp and they form a close bond, despite that not all people around them approve.

THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR is a bittersweet story about two young girls' friendship. Elise Sontag is an old woman, on her way to see Mariko Inoue for the first time in many years. Once they were the best of friends and Elise tells us the story of her youth through recollections. Her life before her father's arrest and then as they were sent to the camp. And, how she formed a close friendship with Mariko Inoue. Now Elise Sontag hopes to have one last chance to see her old friend again.

Susan Meissner latest book is a strong book about how American citizens with roots in foreign countries are sent to internment camps during WWII. Paranoia is running rampant throughout the US and whole families are sent away if the whiff of espionage is found. It's also a story about two teenage girls who spent time in an internment camp and their lives there. I found THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR to be engrossing and heartbreaking to read. This book is especially strong thanks to it being told from a teenagers perspective. Then, we have a parallel storyline with Elise as an old woman looking forward to seeing her best friend again. That story is just as good and I found myself taken with both storylines. A book a warmly recommend!