Russ Allen

Rusty Allen (Col ’81 CM) has published his debut novel, Ella’s War, a journey amongst women and men whose lives are deeply altered by the circumstances of WWII.  

It’s 1943 on the American home front, and Ella’s pent-up common-law husband finally decides to leave their farm and enlist. Ella must either depart their seafaring town in coastal Delaware to pursue other dreams inland or try to save their farm. Their grade-school son, Reese, won’t budge, and Ella sees that farmers have a patriotic duty to stay on the land.

The bay and ocean waters before them have been preyed upon by German U-boats, and their village has become a refuge for survivors. When an officer from a surrendered German submarine is sent to her as part of POW farm labor, can Ella embrace the help in order to survive? And what happens when Dieter becomes more than a hand to her, amid prying eyes and under her beloved but conflicted son’s watch? How will she choose when her explosive husband returns from Europe wounded from infantry duty against the Germans?

“Beautifully wrought, heart stopping, spirit lifting…. What a human brew!”
     –– Ron Suskind (Col ’81) Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Hope in the Unseen

Allen lives in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and can be reached through his website: www.rustyallenauthor.com