Footsteps, like Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Wouk's The Winds of War, is a story filled with suspense, romance, and sudden violence. It is 1941, only days after the infamous attack at Pearl Harbor. Two young army lieutenants-Jennifer, a beautiful nurse, and Jonathan, who falls in love with her almost immediately-are sent to rescue a world-famous physicist from behind German lines in Norway. The physicist had been dispatched by Roosevelt to spy on German atomic energy progress. Chased by the enemy, hampered by the physicist's deteriorating health, impacted by a blossoming romance, and faced with harsh winter conditions, the two young Americans struggle to avoid disaster. An epic battle occurs, with results that echo throughout the novel. The explosive action of Footsteps soon expands to include the whole war-torn world, with action scenes involving the doomed Allied raid at Dieppe, the Russian Front, the Normandy D-Day invasion, and ferocious air battles in the Pacific. Fictional characters with significant roles include an American fighter pilot, a British Special Operations officer, overworked medical personnel, and a pair of German officers-one cruel, the other surprisingly tender-hearted. World War II rages, and human emotions smolder, clouded by issues of conscience and morality. Survivors meet again-enemies as well as friends-in ways both dreamed of and quite shocking.
