One Day in August

Custody card. Image from Ardelia Hall Collection at http://www.fold3.com/

The spark of the idea for The Roses Underneath came to me from the documentary, The Rape of Europa, which was my first introduction to the work of the Monuments Men. Because so many of the Monuments Men were architects and I work with architects every day, I had the germ of an idea about a theoretical novel I have always wanted to write about the end of World War II.

Reading about the events of August 20 1945 gave me an...