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Prisoners of War
Set in a Mississippi farming town, Steve Yarbrough’s new novel is—as the Washington Post said of his Visible Spirits—a “skillful interweaving of complicated relationships to family and history,” here related in a story of wars both global and local, and the prisoners of each.
In 1943, Dan Timms awaits being drafted away from the memory of his father’s recent suicide, the guilt and sorrow of his mother, and the protection of his enterprising uncle, for whom he and a young black man called L.C. drive a “rolling store” through the Delta, its plantations now worked by German soldiers whose fighting days are over. As they would seem to be for Dan’s friend Marty Stark, returned mysteriously from the front and reassigned to guard men he had been trained to kill. But for L.C., a danger more immediate than the one looming overseas is the society into which he was born…
With escape a fervent dream shared by almost everyone, Prisoners of War is a vivid examination of an eternal conflict—between the powerful and those with only the pride of the as-yet-unvanquished—and a subtle, disturbing portrait of a nation at war with itself. As Kirkus Reviews concluded, it is “philosophically troubling, artistically thrilling, and thoroughly impressive.”
In 1943, Dan Timms awaits being drafted away from the memory of his father’s recent suicide, the guilt and sorrow of his mother, and the protection of his enterprising uncle, for whom he and a young black man called L.C. drive a “rolling store” through the Delta, its plantations now worked by German soldiers whose fighting days are over. As they would seem to be for Dan’s friend Marty Stark, returned mysteriously from the front and reassigned to guard men he had been trained to kill. But for L.C., a danger more immediate than the one looming overseas is the society into which he was born…
With escape a fervent dream shared by almost everyone, Prisoners of War is a vivid examination of an eternal conflict—between the powerful and those with only the pride of the as-yet-unvanquished—and a subtle, disturbing portrait of a nation at war with itself. As Kirkus Reviews concluded, it is “philosophically troubling, artistically thrilling, and thoroughly impressive.”
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Steve Yarbrough
37 books96 followersBorn in Indianola, Mississippi, he received his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Mississippi and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. Writing largely within the Southern tradition, he draws his themes and characters from Southern history and mores in ways that have been compared to Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Willie Morris.
Yarbrough's major works include the novels The End of California (2006), Prisoners of War (2004), Visible Spirits (2001) and The Oxygen Man (1999), as well as short story collections such as Family Men (1990), Mississippi History (1994) and Veneer (1998). His latest novel, Safe from the Neighbors, was published by Knopf in 2010.
His honors include the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His novel, Prisoners of War, was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award. His work has been translated into Dutch, Japanese and Polish and published in the United Kingdom.
A professor of creative writing for many years at California State University, Fresno, Yarbrough recently joined the faculty in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston.
He is married to the Polish literary translator Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough and they have two daughters, Tosha and Lena. He lives in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Yarbrough's major works include the novels The End of California (2006), Prisoners of War (2004), Visible Spirits (2001) and The Oxygen Man (1999), as well as short story collections such as Family Men (1990), Mississippi History (1994) and Veneer (1998). His latest novel, Safe from the Neighbors, was published by Knopf in 2010.
His honors include the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His novel, Prisoners of War, was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award. His work has been translated into Dutch, Japanese and Polish and published in the United Kingdom.
A professor of creative writing for many years at California State University, Fresno, Yarbrough recently joined the faculty in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston.
He is married to the Polish literary translator Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough and they have two daughters, Tosha and Lena. He lives in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 5, 2022
This man can write. The book is full of vivid characters, all of whom have interesting story lines. Set in Mississippi during WWII, the story is based on German prisoners of war who were housed in Mississippi. It was very interesting.
August 5, 2026
Nie jestem znawcą literatury amerykańskiej, ale sam temat niemieckich jeńców na amerykańskim Południu jest w Polsce mało znany, a definitywnie warty uwagi. Druga Wojna światowa obnażyła hipokryzję amerykańskiego systemu i zmusiła społeczeństwo do reform (zabrało to co najmniej 20 lat po 1945). W powieści, narracja rozwija się powoli. przybywa nam ciągle osób i zaczynamy się martwić, że tego nie udźwigniemy, a potem nagle jest cała seria wypadków, będąca logicznym następstwem zbudowanego napięcia. Wiele postaci rw tej historii eprezentuje sobą pewne schematy myślowe tego czasu, które jeszcze niestety do dziś rozbrzmiewają echem na Południu.
July 25, 2018
It wasn't bad, this tale of wartime Mississippi cotton pickers aided by German prisoners of war, but I thought my copy of the audiobook was faulty because it wouldn't play any further. Turns out that it had ended. Sure, the arcs were mostly complete, but I did think Shirley was noticeably absent in the closure. And as much as I would love to say Danny was done too, I can't help but feel there had to be more to his journey. However, it's not a subject of WWII I've ever come across before, so I'm glad I read the book.
March 27, 2022
Unique, multidimensional story, detailing the personal devastation resulting from war and racial inequality in the South in 1943. Add in some Nazi prisoners and you have quite a story. Another great book by Yarbrough.
August 16, 2024
A young man coming of age, trying to make sense of life and war in 1943, is the main focus of this story. It was an engaging read.
May 7, 2012
Told that Steve Yarbrough’s Prisoners of War is a World War II novel, you might think you’d open the book and find yourself in Germany or Italy. Instead, you’re in Mississippi. The American War Department did set up some POW camps here and used the prisoners as laborers, in this case, cotton pickers. These Aryan enemies of America were often afforded privileges unavailable to black fighting men. Our soldiers had to watch the men they’d been recently paid to shoot ride on trains, eat in restaurants, and piss in toilets deemed too good for the use of the darker brothers.
Yarbrough doesn’t treat that specific part of the situation, but racism is nevertheless core to Prisoners of War. Its 1943 Mississippi is the essential expression of reconstruction-style Jim Crow. One of the main characters, LC, is beaten bloody for the offense of looking a white man in the eye and telling him to mind his own business, for which assault there is no legal recourse. LC, then, is a prisoner, not directly of WWII, but of segregation. And WWII brings its own special slant to segregation. LC has been granted an exemption from the draft so he can work for a corrupt local businessman. Yet--catch-22--without a draft card, he can’t go anywhere outside the immediate area without near certainty of arrest.
In case I’ve made this sound like a civil rights morality tale with Bull Connor, dogs, and fire hoses, be assured it’s not so. Even the most brutal of the white men are fully drawn beings with torments and sympathetic angles that Yarbrough deserves great credit for making believable. LC is not the only “prisoner” in Loring, Mississippi, and not all the prisoners are black. There are still prisoners of WWI there, and one such veteran commits suicide hoping to keep his son from having to serve in WWII. To one extent or another, everyone in Prisoners of War is controlled by race, war, the memory of war, and/or the idea of war. And into this environment come the Germans.
Imported under the pretense of a labor shortage, they pick cotton at a rate below what the farmers would have to pay other laborers. The army’s line is that they’re not really Nazi’s, that they’d rather be in Mississippi than in a ditch with bullets and shrapnel flying around. So they become part of the community in their own way. Assigned to guard them is a local boy who’s been pulled off the battlefield for some unspecified (at first) psychological imbalance. And the book’s complications ensue.
Interesting as the history, plot and characters of the novel are, I was struck more than anything else by Yarbrough’s language. It’s simple, lyrical, natural-sounding speech is a pleasure to read from first page to the last. On top of all its other virtues, it often has the quality of aphoristic wisdom. some examples:
...they recognized the outsider in her. She was outside whiteness because she was black, and she was outside blackness because she was herself.
You never got so scared you couldn’t be embarrassed, but he wouldn’t know that. He’d assume that if a shell burst nearby, the stain on the seat of your pants would cease to matter once you discovered you were still alive.
“If you think you can’t handle it, then you’d better say so right now.”
“I don’t think I can handle it, sir. In fact, I know I can’t. ...
“I appreciate your honesty, private,” he said, “but if there’s anything good about war it’s this. it gives each of us a chance to overcome our limitations.”
“[They] believe that the line between what’s strictly legal and what’s not [is] just a thin streak of bullshit.”
....just trying to keep rhythm with times so irregular, searching hard for a melody and a few simple words that made any sense at all.
We bring ourselves and our characters to any situation--no matter where you go, there you are, as the saying goes. And it is so in Loring. The racism and small time corruption that existed before the war flourishes even more with the injections of military spending. Though power balances shift, the morality is constant. There are so many parallels to Iraq, you can’t stop thinking about them. I will say that the POW camp commandant pays meticulous attention to the Geneva convention, something our present commanders seem reluctant to do.
Mostly, though, the citizens of Prisoners of War are paper patriots who regularly put their financial well-being above democratic principles. One character, in fact, barely thinks of himself as “American,” listing in his mind several other identities first. Tom Brokaw’s great generation takes a bit of a beating from Yarbrough.
Prisoners of War is one of those rare achievements--an artistic entertainment. It’s a novel that can be read for simple diversion, but below its unpretentious surface is a book with a good share of psychological and intellectual profundity. How do you, for example, deal with your confinement in the ugliness of the war that has become the defining event of this decade? Yarbrough might provide a suggestion or two.
Yarbrough doesn’t treat that specific part of the situation, but racism is nevertheless core to Prisoners of War. Its 1943 Mississippi is the essential expression of reconstruction-style Jim Crow. One of the main characters, LC, is beaten bloody for the offense of looking a white man in the eye and telling him to mind his own business, for which assault there is no legal recourse. LC, then, is a prisoner, not directly of WWII, but of segregation. And WWII brings its own special slant to segregation. LC has been granted an exemption from the draft so he can work for a corrupt local businessman. Yet--catch-22--without a draft card, he can’t go anywhere outside the immediate area without near certainty of arrest.
In case I’ve made this sound like a civil rights morality tale with Bull Connor, dogs, and fire hoses, be assured it’s not so. Even the most brutal of the white men are fully drawn beings with torments and sympathetic angles that Yarbrough deserves great credit for making believable. LC is not the only “prisoner” in Loring, Mississippi, and not all the prisoners are black. There are still prisoners of WWI there, and one such veteran commits suicide hoping to keep his son from having to serve in WWII. To one extent or another, everyone in Prisoners of War is controlled by race, war, the memory of war, and/or the idea of war. And into this environment come the Germans.
Imported under the pretense of a labor shortage, they pick cotton at a rate below what the farmers would have to pay other laborers. The army’s line is that they’re not really Nazi’s, that they’d rather be in Mississippi than in a ditch with bullets and shrapnel flying around. So they become part of the community in their own way. Assigned to guard them is a local boy who’s been pulled off the battlefield for some unspecified (at first) psychological imbalance. And the book’s complications ensue.
Interesting as the history, plot and characters of the novel are, I was struck more than anything else by Yarbrough’s language. It’s simple, lyrical, natural-sounding speech is a pleasure to read from first page to the last. On top of all its other virtues, it often has the quality of aphoristic wisdom. some examples:
...they recognized the outsider in her. She was outside whiteness because she was black, and she was outside blackness because she was herself.
You never got so scared you couldn’t be embarrassed, but he wouldn’t know that. He’d assume that if a shell burst nearby, the stain on the seat of your pants would cease to matter once you discovered you were still alive.
“If you think you can’t handle it, then you’d better say so right now.”
“I don’t think I can handle it, sir. In fact, I know I can’t. ...
“I appreciate your honesty, private,” he said, “but if there’s anything good about war it’s this. it gives each of us a chance to overcome our limitations.”
“[They] believe that the line between what’s strictly legal and what’s not [is] just a thin streak of bullshit.”
....just trying to keep rhythm with times so irregular, searching hard for a melody and a few simple words that made any sense at all.
We bring ourselves and our characters to any situation--no matter where you go, there you are, as the saying goes. And it is so in Loring. The racism and small time corruption that existed before the war flourishes even more with the injections of military spending. Though power balances shift, the morality is constant. There are so many parallels to Iraq, you can’t stop thinking about them. I will say that the POW camp commandant pays meticulous attention to the Geneva convention, something our present commanders seem reluctant to do.
Mostly, though, the citizens of Prisoners of War are paper patriots who regularly put their financial well-being above democratic principles. One character, in fact, barely thinks of himself as “American,” listing in his mind several other identities first. Tom Brokaw’s great generation takes a bit of a beating from Yarbrough.
Prisoners of War is one of those rare achievements--an artistic entertainment. It’s a novel that can be read for simple diversion, but below its unpretentious surface is a book with a good share of psychological and intellectual profundity. How do you, for example, deal with your confinement in the ugliness of the war that has become the defining event of this decade? Yarbrough might provide a suggestion or two.
May 7, 2012
World War II veteran Marty Stark returns home to a Mississippi community that's discovered an abundant source of cheap labor to help harvest its cotton crop: German POWs. Marty, still reeling from his experiences overseas, is assigned to guard these work crews, which include a prisoner who's not what he seems. Dan Timms, disregarding the profound changes in his best friend Marty, can't wait to sign up and go to war to get away from his drunken mother, his profiteering uncle and the memory of his father's suicide. Author Steve Yarbrough handily juggles a huge cast for such a modestly sized novel, tho he eschews the gothic grotesque that characterizes much Southern fiction. Yarbrough follows a quieter route, avoiding grand statements on race relations and greed and war. He remains hidden behind the curtain, letting his story and characters and laid-back prose do the talking for him. Some of the dialog can be a little too snappily cinematic, but generally the book stays grounded in common but nonetheless interesting reality. Yarbrough's writing is much like his characters, presenting a placid, soft-spoken front that masks turbulence beneath.
March 17, 2013
Steve Yarbrough is a fantastic writer.
My error was to listen to this book rather than read the print version. I did NOT enjoy the narrator and it was distracting. I also pushed my own limits of multi-reading by reading TWO Steve Yarbrough's at the same time. One print and this one in audible. His books typically have a cast of many characters and jump around frequently. I love that about them. He does it well. But doing it double time wasn't wise. I am oh-so-excited to meet the author in 10 days and that is why my better judgement was trumped by my RUSH to read his books! Lesson learned: Enjoy them one at a time.
OK, the book itself: It's set in the 1940s in rural Mississippi and deals with WWII. One boy, Dan, who is almost old enough to join up and is looking forward to escaping his life in Mississippi; his black friend, L.C. and the racial issues he must deal with in that time/place; and the sad aftermath of another, Marty, who has returned from Italy. Much of it takes place in a POW camp for German (and Polish) soldiers. In Mississippi. They pick cotton. Who knew? Well, I did not until I read this.
My error was to listen to this book rather than read the print version. I did NOT enjoy the narrator and it was distracting. I also pushed my own limits of multi-reading by reading TWO Steve Yarbrough's at the same time. One print and this one in audible. His books typically have a cast of many characters and jump around frequently. I love that about them. He does it well. But doing it double time wasn't wise. I am oh-so-excited to meet the author in 10 days and that is why my better judgement was trumped by my RUSH to read his books! Lesson learned: Enjoy them one at a time.
OK, the book itself: It's set in the 1940s in rural Mississippi and deals with WWII. One boy, Dan, who is almost old enough to join up and is looking forward to escaping his life in Mississippi; his black friend, L.C. and the racial issues he must deal with in that time/place; and the sad aftermath of another, Marty, who has returned from Italy. Much of it takes place in a POW camp for German (and Polish) soldiers. In Mississippi. They pick cotton. Who knew? Well, I did not until I read this.
February 22, 2014
I really liked the perspective that the author took with this book. It was interesting to see how people left behind during the war were equally as messed up as those that went away. I felt like a lot was left unsaid at the end, which is why I gave it 4 stars. Maybe the point is to fill in the blanks on your own but I wanted things to wrap up. I really like Steve Yarbrough as an author and look forward to reading more of his novels.
January 19, 2009
German prisoners in Mississippi in 1943. Racial prejudice, a father's (WWI) suicide to prevent his only son from going to WWII, a soldier back from the war hating Germans enough to shoot them from a guard tower...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2010
Yarbrough's novel speaks powerfully on the evils of war and racism. I can't say I liked it--because it was often a difficult read. But his writing is so well-crafted that I'll definitely read his other novels.
March 24, 2013
I love Steve Yarbrough's writing, but this story didn't grab me as much as the others of his have. This book looks at the tolls of war in unexpected ways and explores the racial divide in this country in the 1940's. Probably 3.5 stars for me.
June 19, 2010
I really enjoy this author. He uses his beautiful style of prose to develop his complex characters rather than describe action scenes.
January 25, 2016
great piece of southern literature
May 20, 2013
a beautiful and multi-layered novel about war and the effects on those involved.
May 30, 2018
Interesting book, liked that it was close to my home town.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews