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Douglas W. Jacobson brings the Comet Line of WWII to life in 'Night of Flames'
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Douglas W. Jacobson's World War II novel Night of Flames focuses on Jan and Anna Kopernik, a Polish couple. The book opens in Warsaw in 1939 with the first German bombs being dropped on the city, marking the beginning of Anna's flight and fight for her life. Anna's father, a college professor, is taken to a death camp and his ties to a budding resistance group force her to flee the country with her Jewish best friend and her son.
Meanwhile, Jan is fighting as an officer in the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade. He sees his fair share of battles as the Germans invade and occupy Poland, and he narrowly escapes death on several occasions. Eventually, he makes his way to Britain and goes on several undercover missions to Poland and Belgium and forges ties with the resistance. At the same time, Anna is living in Belgium, and as an agent of the Comet Line, she helps Allied pilots escape from the Nazis after their planes are downed.
Night of Flames is a well-written, well-researched novel, and Jacobson's passion for the subject matter shines through. The plot is very detailed, with chapters shifting from Anna's experiences as a civilian dabbling in resistance work to Jan's experiences as a military officer and undercover agent. Jacobson also focuses on several members of the Belgian resistance and their attempts to derail the German war effort. Even readers who are not World War II history buffs might appreciate it as a story of courage, survival, and enduring love.
Douglas W. Jacobson has taken time out of his busy schedule to talk about Night of Flames:
Douglas W. Jacobson
What inspired you to write about the Belgian resistance and the Comet Line during World War II?
I've had a life-long interest in World War II history. Why? I'm not sure. I didn't fight in it, and neither did my father (washed out of the army with flat feet). Perhaps it was because WWII was one of the most significant events in human history, claimed more than 50 million lives, and changed the balance of world power. Sounds pretty heavy doesn't it? Well, at any rate, I've always been interested and read everything I could about this greatest of all human conflicts.
About 15 or 20 years ago, I read Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and a few years later the sequel, War and Remembrance. Now that, I thought, is the way to write about history. Make it real, make it visceral, make it directly impact someone we care about. Make it well documented, but do it in a way that even though we know how the war turns out we can't put down the book because we absolutely must find out what happens to Natalie.
So, the right part of my brain began to poke through and I wanted to write something. I wanted to write something about the war. But what? What could I write that hadn't already been written by Wouk or Leon Uris or Alan Furst, or historians like Stephen Ambrose. Then, a funny thing happened. My daughter married a young man from Belgium and moved to Europe, setting our family on a course that has forever changed our lives.
Over time, while traveling to Europe 2-3 times a year, we became very close friends with my son-in-law's parents. They are wonderful, caring people who are several years older than we are. They were young children during the German occupation of Belgium, but old enough to remember. They didn't talk about it at first, in fact they still don't, it's over, it happened a long time ago, and they survived. End of story. But gradually, as they realized I really wanted to know, they began to tell me the stories. They told me about living in the cellar while their city was being bombed, about German snipers shooting at children in the streets, about not having anything to eat for months on end, about my son-in-law's grandfather being dragged away from the family home by the Gestapo in 1941...and returning 5 years later when he walked home from Germany.
It inspired me. It made it real. And I spend the next five years writing Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two.
Jacobson w/ surviving Comet Line agents
How much research did you perform before writing, what did it entail, and how long did it take this research to be transformed into Night of Flames?
Altogether, I spent about 5 years researching and writing Night of Flames. The research and writing were intertwined, and I never stopped researching the details -- I still don't. Much of it I gained from books, both historical fiction and non-fiction, some from the Internet, some from library documents and old maps, but the most valuable research was the on-site investigations throughout Europe and talking with people who were either directly involved (they're harder to find all the time now) or knew about what happened during the war in their part of the world. Night of Flames evolved during this research and the story took many unexpected twists and turns as I kept learning new and fascinating things.
Do you plan on writing any other novels set in WWII?
As a matter of fact, I'm in the finishing stages of a second historical novel set in Europe during the same time period. It's not a sequel but a related story dealing with one of the most staggering war crimes ever committed.
What do you like to do when you're not writing?
My wife, Janie, and I love to travel. Plus, we have seven grandchildren that keep us pretty busy. Otherwise, I enjoy playing tennis and spending time on our boat in Door County, Wisconsin.
Could you name 5 must-read books for WWII history buffs?
That's a tough call because there are so many. But in the area of very good historical fiction, I would highly recommend starting off with Herman Wouk's classics, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, which span the entire conflict and are brilliantly written. Following that, other novels that deal with more specific parts of the war which I would also highly recommend are Mila 18, A Thread of Grace, The Book Thief, The Zookeeper's Wife, and of course, the Ken Follett thriller Eye of the Needle. For non-fiction, it would be hard to beat Ken Burns' wonderful book, The War, which was made into a PBS documentary a few years ago.
What advice would you give to novice writers?
Do NOT listen to those who tell you how hard it is to finish a novel or get it published. You can do it if you stick to it. If you have a subject you're passionate about and are willing to work hard and seek constructive advice, you can certainly do it.
To learn more about Douglas W. Jacobson, visit his blog. Also, check out the three part article he wrote about the Comet Line for War Through the Generations.
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