History comes alive in Gods Perfect Scar. A survivor of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising finds himself in Auschwitz, working with a woman prisoner to plan and implement a harrowing mass escape. A former Polish lancer turned airborne trooper turned English instructor at the University of Warsaw finds himself targeted by the Kremlin-controlled secret police. Two brothers find themselves conscripted by a pair of ambitious rulers, each itching to fire the first shot in a war that will ensnare soldiers and nurses from America, Britain, New Zealand and Korea. An American priest, a former World War II chaplain, finds himself playing street soccer in Rome and plotting a rescue in Warsaw. Bullets and shrapnel leave lasting scars as do polio, treachery and guilt.
Painstakingly researched, Gods Perfect Scar is the story of ordinary people swept up in extraordinary, history-changing upheavals, contending with unrelenting stresses and making life-altering choices. During his research, Johnson learned about Aline Gartner, lost in the mists of time and history. In the pages of Gods Perfect Scar, he brings back to life this remarkably courageous woman.
From Auschwitz to Cracow to Warsaw, London, Moscow, Beijing, Kaesong, Seoul and small town America, Gods Perfect Scar takes readers on a journey that provides a different and broader perspective on major happenings that have been shaping history for the last 60 years.
As with Johnsons earlier works, Warrior Priest and Fate of the Warriors, the pacing in Gods Perfect Scar is brisk, the tension palpable and the outcomes unpredictable.
