Artist of the Week: Local Author: Erika Madden

ERIKA MADDEN
NEW NOVEL OFFERS A FRESH VIEWPOINT OF
WORLD WAR II GERMANY
Childhood memories inspire historical fiction novel. Erika Madden’s childhood in World War II Germany was one of deprivation and challenge. With the war effort of the mid-1940s, food, heating fuel, and clothing were becoming increasingly scarce, and the German citizens increasingly desperate. The Allied Forces were advancing on the small farming community where Madden’s family lived. Her father was away at war, and the future of her family uncertain. Madden called upon these childhood experiences as inspiration for her new historical fiction novel, “Year of the Angels.” The novel is set in 1944-1945 – the year that the Allied Forces advanced upon, and eventually occupied, the small medieval town of Mainbernheim, Germany. The story unfolds through the eyes of a young German girl, Lisl, and centers on her relationship with her younger brother, Dieter, and the creative ways they survived the war through imagination and play. “I didn’t want my novel to be just a war story,” says Madden. “I wanted to show the softer side of children, their acceptance of Hitler’s Germany, and how they escape emotionally from the terror and hate.” Erika Madden is current and long-time member of the Hard-Nosed Zealots Writers’ Critique Group of Stanwood/Camano Island.