Diane Moody has written a detailed and moving tale of two young peopleâDanny McClain and Anya Versteegâwho live through the harrowing times of World War II. This is an especially meaningful story for me since my parents lived through similar trials and ordeals of that global conflict. The reader gets to know both characters in up-close and intimate portraits as Ms. Moody deftly paints a picture of each character's growing pains â Danny in Chicago and Anya in Utrecht, a city near Amsterdam in the Netherlands â as they both deal with their individual family relationships and crises. While Danny co-pilots an Army Air Corps B-17 on bombing runs over Germany, and Anya throws herself into working with the Dutch Resistance and evading the Nazis in the occupied Netherlands, the reader can begin to anticipate an inevitable intersection of their paths. To borrow Irving Stone's title, we get to experience âthe agony and the ecstasyâ of what it must have been like to endure those most trying of times. Of Windmills and War is a hard-to-put-down and satisfying read.
