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In the Shadows of War. An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany. Thomas Childers. Henry Holt & Co. 445 pages; photographs; maps; notes; index; $27.50.
A professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Childers here presents what appears to be a spellbinding novel full of action and suspense but is really, as he says, "a work of historical non-fiction." The narrative "is based on extensive interviews, diaries, letters, debriefing reports, courtroom, testimony, military records and government documents in Britain, France, Germany and the United States." He has also consulted "memoirs and firsthand accounts by survivors." Although his research is that of a professional historian, his story employs "literary devices more commonly associated with fiction."
The people Professor Childers has portrayed are real. The details and circumstances in which...