A Debt of War

“With the world at its most fractured point, two would-be enemies forge a bond and loyalty that transcends the battlefields of Western Europe. Michael Ringering weaves a beautifully layered story, against the most extreme of circumstances, reminding us that what we share will always be more powerful than contemporary forces that would seek to divide. A Debt of War is truly a masterful and timeless piece.”

“A Debt of War by Michael Ringering is a World War II novel quite unlike any war book I have ever read... I’ve read several war books of one stripe or another recently, but I can honestly say that none has touched me to the very core of my being as A Debt of War did. Author Michael Ringering has somehow taken an almost impossible scenario to behold and shaped it into a believable and powerful narrative. The story is utterly compelling, and the characters jump off the page and attach themselves to the reader’s psyche. For the poor German soldier Jakob, tormented by his love for his family and yet torn apart by his father’s blind fanaticism to Hitler and the Nazi rhetoric, the war was an absolute struggle for someone who could only be described as a gentle soul. The correlation in nature and beliefs between Jakob and GI O’Dell was startling and powerful.

“The story is full of action, excitement, and battles, which will keep all the adrenaline junkies extremely happy. Yet, it is beautifully blended with deep and powerful emotions that will pull at any reader’s heartstrings. Like Paul, while reading this story, I began to question if this was fiction or reality. The setting, the background, the equipment, everything about this story rang true, and one was almost left hoping, in some way, there was a grain of truth to this absorbing story. I doubt I’ve been this impressed with any author’s work the first time I’ve read them, and I will definitely be seeking out more of his portfolio. If this story is anything to go by, he is an original-thinking author with wonderful narrative ability. I loved this book, and I can highly recommend it.”

“Michael Ringering has created a masterly work in his novel, A Debt of War. In a story within a story, Ringering blends the mystery of an unpublished manuscript, which puzzles the family of Paul Bacca with its curious delivery and its contents, with the deeply emotional personal soldiers’ experiences of the horrors of combat, the gut-wrenching experiences of the victims of war, and the mirror image experiences of the enemies—all victims of their circumstances. I repeat the word ‘experiences’ because it is the core of the emotions, reactions, and the entwined, all-enveloping love that reading A Debt of War engenders. The rough and tumble interactions of soldiers in deadly combat with its ‘foxhole humor’ and incidents twist the lives and fortunes of captors and prisoners into mutual struggles to survive, some successful, others tragically not successful. Herein grows the debt of war among the soldiers. The mysterious manuscript is explained, and its true author revealed in a conclusion that rivals the tales of William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry. The comparison is not offered lightly as Michael Ringering has earned it fair and square with this brilliant, compelling tale of the entanglements of life and death—and the debts to be paid.”

“War is, by its very nature, an inhumane beast. Real people with dreams and aspirations are placed in uniform and fed into a hellish world where they quickly become anonymous statistics in a report and later in a history book. It’s an injustice to those who died that they did so only to become a footnote in a textbook, but it is an injustice that Michael Ringering seeks to put right with this book. Exploring how even bitter enemies out to kill each other can find humanity between them, this book is a reminder that wars are fought by real people, each with vivid and complex lives and feelings. A Debt of War does not blink as it examines the extreme ways that conflict molds the people forced to live through it. As such, I recommend it highly to those interested in military fiction that focuses less on the glory of conflict and more on its humanity.”