In Times of Rain and War, by Camron Wright

This beautifully written novel slides between great heights of hope and deep depths of despair.

Perhaps the principal character from In Times of Rain and War is a black box carefully made by Audrey’s father, somewhat like a tefillin used by observant Jews to hold verses from the Torah. It was cleverly designed to require quick presses to its corners in a particular sequence in order to slide its lid free. Inside were letters Audrey had written to her father and those he had written to her. As time passes in the novel more letters are added to the box, two of them written by Wes with whom Audrey has fallen in love. And finally are letters written to them. These letters contain much of the beautiful prose in the novel, and each of them written by Audrey or Wes contains a secret.

The novel takes place in wartime England, during the German bombing of London and before the Americans enter the war. The male protagonist, Wes, is an American marine, sent to observe the art of defusing unexploded bombs. The young woman, Audrey, is a German national who entered England with a forged passport in order to escape the Nazis. Wes and Audrey have their personal demons, but they fall in love, as you would expect. And with that a description of the novel’s plot must stop, in order to avoid spoiling the novel’s intensity and the author’s magnificent rendition of the disasters that befell the English during Hitler’s ruthless bombardment of innocent citizens.

The pace of the novel’s action is fast, but in many places the author uses a small pause in the action to illustrate a poignant moment. In a moment when Wes stands over a German airman he has killed in a small country church, he calls out “I had no choice,” as he looks up at a sculpture of Jesus on a silver cross. The author observes, “He seemed to be looking down at Wes, or was he looking past him at the dead man? Either way, he was wearing his own circle of thorns, and he looked to be crying.” Much later in the novel, Audrey holds Wes in an embrace in a warehouse despite the fact that sirens are wailing. She consoles him over the death of a teammate, and determines she will not let go even if bombs begin to fall. “She knew well, from her own experience, that emotional wounds exposed to the air at nighttime invariably cause the sharpest of pain. His sorrows would scab over, but a cut this deep would take time to fully heal.” These are but a few examples of the beautiful imagery that Camron Wright weaves into the plot.

At the end of the novel, the ebony prayer box appears for one last letter. War changes people. A man who survives war cannot leave it behind. But Camron Wright has written much more than a PTSD novel. His beautifully written novel slides between great heights of hope and deep depths of despair. These are what war’s survivors must endure.

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