stars over clear lake by loretta ellsworth

But it has been imagined, by this author in this fanciful fiction, as the outcome of the passions of first love and the ugly scars of war. Not much is known about the fire that destroyed the original Surf Ballroom in 1947 the cause has never been determined. “Stars Over Clear Lake,” by Loretta Ellsworth They advise her to tell her long-buried secret. As she wanders through the new club, she starts to see long-dead people from her 1940s past.

She hasn’t been to the place in decades - because she was there the night of the Surf fire and harbors a deep secret. We meet the older Lorraine, widowed and now in her 80s, just as she’s entering the present-day Surf Ballroom, rebuilt on a new spot after an unexplained fire burned the original club to the ground. Jens is shipped back to Germany with the other POWs, but not before the young couple vow to be reunited. Then, just as the war brought them together, the end of the war wrenches them apart. But she can’t get Jens out of her mind, and they cultivate a forbidden relationship during their lessons. She knows it’s not the patriotic thing to do: To the war-scarred townsfolk, many of whom have lost a father, brother or son abroad, she’s helping the enemy. Lorraine is fascinated by this blue-eyed, boyish soul who asks her to teach him English. He was conscripted into the German army over threats to his family, and as an unwilling soldier he was immediately captured by the Allies and sent off to prison in America. She and Scotty begin a romance, but the war suddenly thrusts an unexpected gift into Lorraine’s life: a young, intriguing German POW named Jens, who is working on her family’s farm as part of a crew from the nearby prison camp. In 1944, Lorraine Kindred is an Iowa farm girl with hopes of going to college and a wistful eye for Scotty, the most popular boy in town. The story runs on two timelines: 1944, and six decades later to nearly present day. It is also where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the “Big Bopper” performed their last show before their fateful plane crash in 1959 - “the day the music died.” The first adult novel by Lakeville children’s author Loretta Ellsworth takes on a big task: depicting 1940s wartime life in the Heartland, captured largely through the magical escape that was the Surf Ballroom - the famous dance hall in Clear Lake, Iowa, where countless big bands entertained America during and after World War II.

Stars over clear lake by loretta ellsworth