Overview

Candor, North Carolina. The town barber brandishes a copy of the May 1927 Charlotte Observer-on the front page, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis on its cross-country flight. At the outskirts of town, best friends Lake, Roger, and Jim take turns hurling their wingless crate down a hill. Eyes closed, they imagine their future alongside Lindy. Pearl Harbor and America's entry into what would be World War II changes everything. The boys will have their chance to fly--but not over North Carolina farm fields. They will fly America's legendary B-17 Flying Fortress for the Mighty Eighth Air Force. And they will fly across Europe on bombing runs, facing a determined German Luftwaffe. The odds of completing their tours of duty are slim. A Gathering of Men is the account of the boys who board their aircraft for the first time and the men they become in the blink of an eye. The terrors they witness and the pressure to go up again and again and again brings them to the breaking point. It is a moving tale, based on a true story, about shattered dreams and enduring friendship, duty, and honor.

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Reviews

A vehicle of time travel, taking us back to the senses and places of 1940s North Carolina and the battles of WWII. Vivid, beautiful and heartbreaking."" -Patti Callahan Henry, author of Surviving Savannah, co-creator of Friends & Fiction ""A powerhouse of a novel, combining the hearts and bonds of men at war with exquisite technical accuracy that reads like lightning from a rifle barrel. A Gathering of Men is a sweeping epic that will keep you breathless while leaving no heartstring un-pulled."" -Brian Panowich, bestselling author of Bull Mountain and Hard Cash Valley ""This compelling story by Rona Simmons is a glorious tribute to the men of the 100th Bomb Group, whose sacrifice and heroism at great personal cost resonates vividly across the decades."" -Robert J. Mrazek, award-winning author of The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs

Author Information

Rona Simmons is an award-winning author of historical fiction and nonfiction. For the last several years, she has focused on untold and often overlooked stories from World War II, ""The sweep of events, from the First World War, to the Great Depression, to World War II, had a momentous impact on our lives,"" Simmons says. She adds, ""the era is a period we can still almost touch with our fingertips,"" as she demonstrated successfully in her writing. Her motivation to write about the war stems from her connections with the military. She is the daughter of a World War II Army Air Forces P-38 fighter pilot, the daughter-in-law of a bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, and the wife of a Vietnam-era US Navy pilot. Simmons has also written for literary journals and online and print magazines and newspapers and is active in her local writing community.

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