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Fireweed
A WWII story from a German's point of view. Not a novel but a well-written book. Mostly for LDS audiences.
309 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
10 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Terry Montague
4 books36 followersTerry Bohle Montague is a BYU graduate and free-lance writer for television, radio, newspaper, and magazines including Meridian Magazine and the Ensign. She has also been published as the author of historical non-fiction and fiction.
Her non-fiction work includes the book, Mine Angels Round About, the story of the LDS West German Mission evacuation of 1939 which occurred just before the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Her LDS fiction, Fireweed, is loosely based on her interviews with the evacuated West German missionaries and their families.
Her writing awards include those from LDS Storymakers, Idaho Writers’ League, and Romance Writers of America.
Her non-fiction work includes the book, Mine Angels Round About, the story of the LDS West German Mission evacuation of 1939 which occurred just before the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Her LDS fiction, Fireweed, is loosely based on her interviews with the evacuated West German missionaries and their families.
Her writing awards include those from LDS Storymakers, Idaho Writers’ League, and Romance Writers of America.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
April 26, 2018
Really enjoyed this LDS historical fiction, although it sure was bittersweet. Read it in a few big gulps. Bro. Spann’s example of forgiveness and Christlike behavior during the horrors of WWII were inspiring.
June 1, 2022
This is a historical fiction book written from an author who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - Day Saints. The main characters in the book also belong to the church. It is a typical, heart wrenching WWII story of love and loss, prejudice and forgiveness. Hatred and blame that eventually gets washed away by Christ’s love and service towards her fellow man. It follows Liesel, a German teenager, throughout the war. It is clean, but not void of death and destruction. It brings faith, hope, and miracles into the messy, depressing, and tragic war torn Germany. Good messages. God is good. Even though bad things happen.
Something I did not like, or find appropriate, was the father’s blessings completely written out. Those are very special and sacred and could have been referenced without written out word for word.
Something I did not like, or find appropriate, was the father’s blessings completely written out. Those are very special and sacred and could have been referenced without written out word for word.
July 31, 2018
This wasn’t my favorite ww2 book and I definitely didn’t like some things about this book. That being Said I did enjoy a different perspective of the war. I really didn’t like full priesthood blessings being given. They felt fake and contrived and almost like every amazing thing you could put into it was in it. Just not my thing.
May 6, 2020
I wasn't sure what to rate this one. It took me awhile to read it. It takes place in Germany during WWII and so it was difficult to read at times. I had to read it in bits and pieces and then take a break and read something happier before coming back to it. Overall it was good though it didn't end quite the way I wanted it to.
December 11, 2017
It was a fun, new and different perspective on WWII Germany and while I enjoyed that, it is still LDS fiction with all its genre pit falls.
April 6, 2024
This is by a local Author. I enjoyed it.
May 21, 2024
A long time since I read this book.
I still loved reading it, even almost 30 years later. It's showing me what could happen to our country if the division doesn't stop.
I still loved reading it, even almost 30 years later. It's showing me what could happen to our country if the division doesn't stop.
November 24, 2025
This is a story well told of the pains of war on everyone. Wanted to keep reading. The feelings and love in this story are felt deeply in each character.
December 28, 2025
Good, clean LDS read.
September 29, 2025
Kind of surprised at how much I liked and respected this book.
March 14, 2017
A world war 2 tale of a German LDS family and how they survived the war through, bombings, rations, separation, betrail and loss. It wasn't a typical everyone comes through after going through this war.
July 22, 2012
Fireweed is a novel taking place in WWII Germany. At first, I thought it might ring similar to Dean Hughes’ Children of the Promise series, which highlights a missionary who served in Germany and then, as a soldier, had to fight the very people he had grown to love. But this novel takes a different perspective: that of Lisel Spann, a carefree, faithful, strong German teen.
This was a great book to begin to understand yet another new perspective of this era of modern history. It seems that most books written about “inside Germany” during the second World War are about concentration camps, either hiding from them or experiencing them. While I don’t want to downplay the atrocities of the concentration camps, this point of view is equally valuable — it deals with the atrocities everyday German citizens had to endure.
We learn about war in school as though it were a game with no real consequences — so much of it is about who won what battles. I knew that after the war, there was a lot of “clean-up” to be done — though I hadn’t really thought about why (’cause on video games, things just reset themselves). And I hadn’t understood why the Americans would be the ones to help clean up when we had won — what kind of prize is that? If I had beat my brother in a game of one-on-one (hey, it’s my blog and I can dream if I want to), seems like a fair deal would be that he would do the dishes afterwards. The thing is, though, that war is never fair (or it’s “all fair,” as the cliche goes), and you have to go with what makes sense on a personal, human level.
Obviously, as an American, I had never imagined the German perspective — how it frustrating it would be to live off of ration points that were continually devalued; how terrified I would be of the nightly air raids; how worn and ragged I would feel living in a city that had been reduced to rubble, its citizens hungry, tired, displaced, and desperate. For German citizens like Lisel, it seem that everyone is the enemy: the German government denies her even the most basic freedoms, a group of Poles who refuse Lisel shelter as British forces bomb Berlin, the Russians who brutally kill Germans as they march to seige the capital city, and even the American soldiers who detain the “dirty Krauts” in subhuman conditions.
Still, when it seems everyone is against her, Lisel is strengthened by family and faith. The blessings of the gospel permeated the story, endearing the strong and stalwart characters to the reader.
Terry Montague notes in her foreward to the book that she wanted to make the experiences told in the novel as real as possible, so she reduced her diet to only a few hundred calories per day. The insights into the minds of the character were unexpected but real — I get cranky when dinner is late, so I can only imagine what the trial of hunger might be like.
The characters in this book were wonderful, with many moods and layers. The story is plenty bittersweet but permeated with hope. The novel is one of the best I’ve read in awhile.
This was a great book to begin to understand yet another new perspective of this era of modern history. It seems that most books written about “inside Germany” during the second World War are about concentration camps, either hiding from them or experiencing them. While I don’t want to downplay the atrocities of the concentration camps, this point of view is equally valuable — it deals with the atrocities everyday German citizens had to endure.
We learn about war in school as though it were a game with no real consequences — so much of it is about who won what battles. I knew that after the war, there was a lot of “clean-up” to be done — though I hadn’t really thought about why (’cause on video games, things just reset themselves). And I hadn’t understood why the Americans would be the ones to help clean up when we had won — what kind of prize is that? If I had beat my brother in a game of one-on-one (hey, it’s my blog and I can dream if I want to), seems like a fair deal would be that he would do the dishes afterwards. The thing is, though, that war is never fair (or it’s “all fair,” as the cliche goes), and you have to go with what makes sense on a personal, human level.
Obviously, as an American, I had never imagined the German perspective — how it frustrating it would be to live off of ration points that were continually devalued; how terrified I would be of the nightly air raids; how worn and ragged I would feel living in a city that had been reduced to rubble, its citizens hungry, tired, displaced, and desperate. For German citizens like Lisel, it seem that everyone is the enemy: the German government denies her even the most basic freedoms, a group of Poles who refuse Lisel shelter as British forces bomb Berlin, the Russians who brutally kill Germans as they march to seige the capital city, and even the American soldiers who detain the “dirty Krauts” in subhuman conditions.
Still, when it seems everyone is against her, Lisel is strengthened by family and faith. The blessings of the gospel permeated the story, endearing the strong and stalwart characters to the reader.
Terry Montague notes in her foreward to the book that she wanted to make the experiences told in the novel as real as possible, so she reduced her diet to only a few hundred calories per day. The insights into the minds of the character were unexpected but real — I get cranky when dinner is late, so I can only imagine what the trial of hunger might be like.
The characters in this book were wonderful, with many moods and layers. The story is plenty bittersweet but permeated with hope. The novel is one of the best I’ve read in awhile.
October 6, 2015
Fireweed takes the reader through World War II from the viewpoint of a young German girl, Lisel Spann. Although her L.D.S. faith does not present the same dangers to her the Jewish faith does to other Germans, she soon learns that the greatness promised by the Nazi party comes at a terrible price and delivers a hollow reward full of death and suffering.
As the Mormon missionaries and foreign church leaders are pulled from Germany and sent to Denmark, German members of the faith find themselves on their own. By acting on the values of decency with which was raised, she finds herself in trouble with the Gestapo for trying to help an old woman who refused to accept the current political realities of their homeland. Lisel loses the privilege of continuing her education as she is forced into factory work for the war effort, finding herself in constant danger as she labors in unsafe conditions and under the control of a sadistic, power-hungry manager with a personal vendetta against her.
Although there has been much criticism for the German people not seeing Hitler and his policies for what they were, this novel brings out the difficulties of average people living in difficult circumstances who listened to leaders offering hope for better and more prosperous times to foresee how it will turn out in the end. Only after the Nazis had a stranglehold on the nation did many of the people realize it was a false dream. By then the Nazi political machine proved too strong for the average citizen to resist of without suffering and often death.
Lisel watched her family and neighbors pulled apart by the war and government policies. By war’s end, many had not survived, others were forever incapacitated. Through much struggle in post-war Germany, Lisel forged onward to search for and hold onto those people important to her. She strove to fulfill the promises given to her in a blessing she received as a young woman—although in the realities of post-war Germany, those promises ended up being fulfilled in a different manner than what she expected at the time the words were spoken.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. Besides being a great story, it paints a clear picture of the heavy price paid by everyone, including the average German citizen, who was touched by the Nazi political machine and the war. It also serves as a reminder that citizens of any nation who do not pay attention to the political goals of their government leaders can find themselves enslaved and entangled in situations which will require the shedding of blood and great suffering in order for them to escape to freedom.
As the Mormon missionaries and foreign church leaders are pulled from Germany and sent to Denmark, German members of the faith find themselves on their own. By acting on the values of decency with which was raised, she finds herself in trouble with the Gestapo for trying to help an old woman who refused to accept the current political realities of their homeland. Lisel loses the privilege of continuing her education as she is forced into factory work for the war effort, finding herself in constant danger as she labors in unsafe conditions and under the control of a sadistic, power-hungry manager with a personal vendetta against her.
Although there has been much criticism for the German people not seeing Hitler and his policies for what they were, this novel brings out the difficulties of average people living in difficult circumstances who listened to leaders offering hope for better and more prosperous times to foresee how it will turn out in the end. Only after the Nazis had a stranglehold on the nation did many of the people realize it was a false dream. By then the Nazi political machine proved too strong for the average citizen to resist of without suffering and often death.
Lisel watched her family and neighbors pulled apart by the war and government policies. By war’s end, many had not survived, others were forever incapacitated. Through much struggle in post-war Germany, Lisel forged onward to search for and hold onto those people important to her. She strove to fulfill the promises given to her in a blessing she received as a young woman—although in the realities of post-war Germany, those promises ended up being fulfilled in a different manner than what she expected at the time the words were spoken.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. Besides being a great story, it paints a clear picture of the heavy price paid by everyone, including the average German citizen, who was touched by the Nazi political machine and the war. It also serves as a reminder that citizens of any nation who do not pay attention to the political goals of their government leaders can find themselves enslaved and entangled in situations which will require the shedding of blood and great suffering in order for them to escape to freedom.
November 21, 2015
This is a story of a Mormon family living in Naxi Germany during WWII. They face the same problem of most German families living at that time. The constantly worry about a son, or a father, or brother who is in the army and fighting in places far away. They worry that something they say or do might be considered subversive or just unapproving of the Third Reich. There is a nagging fear that one of their neighbors might turn them in for so doing. The have to live through endless nights of bombing raids that destroy their homes and businesses, and might kill a friend of loved one. They have to deal with severe food shortages and never have enough to eat. And LDS families also have to worry that their association with an "American Church" will be considered disloyal to the Nazi government. This book starts before the beginning of the war and continues year by year, showing how their lives are progressively almost all destroyed. The end, while not particulary happy for everyone, shows that while not all trials and hardships are removed by remaining faithful, strength is gained and the Lord's promised blessings will eventually be realized.
April 23, 2012
i absolutely loved this book. my mom wanted me to read it for quite some time and i opted not to. then one day, out of boredom and a bit of "let's get this done" i picked it up and commenced to read--and i am so glad i did. it took a bit to get into the story but once i did i was sucked in and couldn't put it down. i love when a book makes me think or moves me emotionally. this book did just that and i was literally bawling from about the half-way point onward. when i put it down, i wiped my eyes, went and found my mom and thanked her for having recommended it to me in the first place. it is definitely worth a look.
July 19, 2013
This book gave an in depth look into the life of the saints in WWII Germany and the aftermath of that terrible time in modern history. This is one of my favorite historical fiction novels to date.
We have all heard the stories of both the Jews and the Americans during the war, but it was different to read the story of a Latter-Day-Saint girl and what she went through while living in Germany during WWII.
This story was heart-breaking, eye-opening and filled with suspense. This book taught me that even in the bleakest of times peace can be found through exercising your faith and trusting in God.
We have all heard the stories of both the Jews and the Americans during the war, but it was different to read the story of a Latter-Day-Saint girl and what she went through while living in Germany during WWII.
This story was heart-breaking, eye-opening and filled with suspense. This book taught me that even in the bleakest of times peace can be found through exercising your faith and trusting in God.
July 27, 2009
I really enjoyed this book. It is about an LDS German girl during the time of World War II in Germany. It was very interesting to me to see how the lives of the Germans were during that time. I have read and heard stories from the Jew and American side , but not from the side of the German citizens. This opened my eyes to how Hitler had pulled the wool over their eyes. This was a very inspiring story of strength and determination. I am enthralled with WW11 history, and this is one of the best WWII historical novels I have read.
February 21, 2011
Incredible, incredible story. Set in Germany, beginning a few years before World War II, the story follows an LDS family as their beloved country is torn apart and their faith is put to the ultimate test. EXCELLENT!! My mom first gave this to me when I was an older teen, and I have read it many times since. I love to return to it to "visit" the characters in the story, and to be reminded of my blessings.
October 26, 2016
Liesel Span and her family are Mormons who lived in Berlin, Nazi Germany, during World War II. Even though this is a fictional story, the challenges of being a Berlin citizen during the war are depicted with reality. Trying to stay under the radar, having your neighbors turn you in for disobedience, finding food, finding work, being cold and hungry, being in the wrong place during a riot, plundering for food, discrimination, bombing and survival.
April 25, 2010
Historical fiction that helped me to imagine what it was like as a teenage girl living in Germany during WW2.
Ration cards, work permits, running to bombing shelters, living in fear of the SS, worrying for your brother fighting for Hitler, trying to hold onto your faith and your dreams, while seeing death and atrocities all around you.
Ration cards, work permits, running to bombing shelters, living in fear of the SS, worrying for your brother fighting for Hitler, trying to hold onto your faith and your dreams, while seeing death and atrocities all around you.
May 22, 2015
Hard to get into--not the greatest writing to start out with. But I did end up picking it up again eventually, and it got better. Some pretty cheesy bits, unbelievable characterization/happenings, but also some thought-provoking ones, too. I didn't know much of this side of the war, so that was interesting. Somewhat typical Mormon fiction.
February 16, 2016
Wow! I love historical fiction and WW2 novels. Fireweed was a faith promoting story that created an array of emotions as you connected with the characters and want their story to end in a happily ever after. The truth of life is...they don't always end that way, but the Lord does comfort and sustain his children through their trials.
December 30, 2010
World War II from the German viewpoint - told by a of a daughter of an LDS family. Reminds us even in the bleakest of times we can find peace and comfort. I was not sure I wanted to read the story because I like to avoid the horrors of war and fighting but it was a very good read!
June 1, 2013
Fire Weed was heartbreaking, eyeopening, and amazing. It gave me a really awesome glimpse into World War II from the LDS point of view. I think it could have been a little shorter and been just as good, but overall, it was a one-of-a-kind book.
February 2, 2014
I loved this book, but be warned that you'll need tissues at the end. Lisel is a young LDS girl living in Berlin during the second world war. She learns to deal with many hardships through her faith and love.
August 26, 2007
Wonderful coming of age story about a young Mormon girl caught into the depths of life in WWII Germany.
July 16, 2008
read this book a long time ago but i loved it, yahoo i am upen my list
August 19, 2008
This was a really good book about world war II
February 15, 2009
Fascinating story of what of one LDS girl's experience of living in Germany during WWII.
February 20, 2009
A good LDS novel set in Germany in WWII.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews