This is a book of fiction, a war novel that required considerable research into the two World Wars. Having been born three years before Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, the author's teenage years focused on the Great War and combat duty in the Second World War led to a lifetime of learning and writing of the two epics of the 20th century. To those who question the value of fiction over nonfiction, the novelist Barbara Kingsolver offered this: ""I love fiction that educates me on the sly about something I did not realize I wanted to know. As long as novelists have done their research and honored accuracy where it counts, I'd rather learn from a confabulation than a textbook. This story, therefore, honors the historical facts while introducing fictional characters in love and war. Also present in the story are commentaries of issues often distorted by propaganda.