Jersey Brothers

This extraordinary adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II is "liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it's all true" (The New York Times). They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war's most crucial moments. Bill, a naval intelligence officer, is tapped by FDR to set up and run his secret map room in the White House basement. Benny is the gunnery and antiaircraft officer on USS Enterprise, one of the few ships to escape Pearl Harbor and, by the end of 1942, the only aircraft carrier left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest, gets a plum commission in the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to Manila and listed as wounded and missing after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him... Based on a decade of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and half-forgotten letters stashed away in attics, The Jersey Brothers is "a captivating tour-de-force" (San Antonio Express-News) that whisks readers from America's front porches to Roosevelt's White House to the battlefronts of the Pacific. But at its heart The Jersey Brothers is a family story, written by one of its own in intimate, novelistic detail. It is a remarkable tale of agony and triumph; of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the enemy does everything short of killing him; and of brotherly love tested under the tortures of war. "The Jersey Brothers shines in singularity. A blend of history, family saga and family questions, Freeman's book [is] a winning and moving success, and adds an authoritative entry to the... vast canon of war literature" (Richmond Times Dispatch).

"Richly informed by Freeman's deep research, The Jersey Brothers is a powerfully evocative story of three brothers and their remarkable love, courage, and adventure during a decisive moment in World War II." - Don Katz, founder and CEO of Audible and author of Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America, "A great summer read by a splendid writer.... The characters are vividly drawn, the action riveting, and the suspense almost overwhelming." - Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, "A terrific book that I was just totally captivated by." - Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Highly dramatic history. [Mott's] book is liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it's all true." - The New York Times , "In her moving new epic The Jersey Brothers, Sally Mott Freeman captures a story of love, devotion and perseverance shared by three inspiring siblings caught in the epicenter of some of the war's most crucial actions... A rare look into the deepest personal emotions of a family of America's Greatest Generation." - The Dallas Morning News

Sally Mott Freeman was a speechwriter and media and public relations executive for twenty-five years. She is currently Board Chair Emerita of The Writer's Center, the premier independent literary center in the mid-Atlantic. The Jersey Brothers is her first book.