Lines of Courage

Published in May 2022, Lines of Courage is a historical fiction middle grade novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen that centers on the impact of World War I on individual lives through the alternating perspectives of five main characters. The novel is divided into five main parts, each centered on one young protagonist from a different country involved in the war: Felix is Austro-Hungarian, Kara is British, Juliette is French, Dimitri is Russian, and Elsa is German. Through their different points of view and experiences, the five young people offer insight into the many sides of the worldwide conflict. Each of them makes choices that test their bravery and highlight the importance of compassion and justice. The novel thus explores themes such as Finding One’s Courage, Anger Versus Empathy in Times of Conflict, and The Intersection of Collective and Personal History. Nielsen describes actual historical events through fictionalized lenses, creating a personal narrative of WWI. At the end of the book, the five protagonists are reunited as the war officially comes to an end, thus symbolically providing narrative closure as well.

Lines of Courage is American author Jennifer A. Nielsen’s fifth standalone historical fiction novel. While she is also very well-known for her fantasy series, Nielsen’s historical fiction novels have received critical acclaim and multiple awards. Those include A Night Divided (2015), Resistance (2018), Words on Fire (2019), and Rescue (2021), and have earned her the 2019 Sydney Taylor Notable Book Award as well as several Whitney Awards in 2015 and 2018.

This guide refers to the 2022 Kindle edition of the book.

Content Warning: Lines of Courage explores the impact of World War I on individuals from different sides of the conflict. The narrative references violence, death, injuries, poverty, starvation, and the grief inherent to this historical context.

Plot Summary

The novel is divided into five main parts, each focusing on one of the protagonists and one year of the war. The first section centers on Felix and takes place in 1914, the second revolves around Kara in 1915, the third on Juliette in 1916, the fourth on Dimitri in 1917, and the fifth on Elsa in 1918. At the end of the book, additional parts depict all five characters reuniting and seeing the war come to an end. Each chapter is also dated, following the chronology of World War I; major historical events are mentioned, including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the Battle of Verdun in 1916, and the Russian Revolution in 1917, for instance.

In the first part, Felix is visiting Sarajevo with his father, Sergeant Josef Baum. After witnessing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Felix returns home with a sense of guilt for being unable to prevent it. The news of the increasing international tensions worry the young boy, who is afraid about the possibility of a war. When German family friends visit them, Felix meets Elsa, a young girl who explains the intricacies of possible geopolitical alliances between the nations involved in the conflict. Before leaving, she gives her new friend a homing pigeon and urges him to stay in touch.

Sergeant Baum is soon called to war and tries to give Felix his Golden Cross of Merit before leaving, but Felix refuses, claiming that he has not earned it. After his father has left, Felix takes it upon himself to become brave and protect his mother. When news arrives that Russian troops are approaching their hometown of Lemberg, Felix and his mother attempt to flee, and he sends a message to Elsa to let her know about their plan. However, they are trapped in the city as the Russians invade Lemberg and forced to host Captain Garinov, who wants to round up the local Jewish families. Felix refuses to help him, which puts him and his mother in danger. Elsa, who has received Felix’s pigeon, comes to his rescue and helps him and his mother escape Lemberg. They then plan on staying in Vienna, where they will be safe.

The second part of the novel focuses on Kara, a British girl who dreams of becoming a nurse like her mother. When the latter starts working on an ambulance train to bring wounded soldiers back from the front, Kara goes along to help. Although smart and competent, Kara has a tendency to go against orders to help others.

When Sergeant Baum, an injured enemy soldier, is left behind by the other orderlies, Kara sneaks him onto the train herself. Although she saves his life, Kara is demoted and barred from helping the wounded anymore. In return for her bravery, Sergeant Baum offers her his Golden Cross of Merit.

Later, as Kara and her mother visit the town of Verdun, they meet Juliette, a young French girl selling items on the market. She is trying to collect money in order to pay for her father’s freedom, as he has been taken hostage by the German forces. Kara gives her the Golden Cross of Merit to help.

The next section revolves around Juliette, who is fleeing Verdun with her family as German troops are approaching. During their escape, they become separated when Juliette has to hide away from them. She wakes up on Kara’s ambulance train after catching hypothermia, and tries to find her family in every village where the train stops. Finally, she goes to Lille, where her father is kept hostage. There, she reunites with her old friend Monique, whose mother is also imprisoned by the Germans. Monique steals Juliette’s money to free her mother, so Juliette decides to leave. However, they are caught by German soldiers who take them to a work camp.

Juliette spends three months working the fields, until Monique gives her a chance to escape to redeem herself. Juliette is soon caught by Major Dressler, the officer in charge of the Lille hostages. He has become friends with Juliette’s father, so she pleads for his safe return, leaving Major Dressler with a moral dilemma. The Major takes her to Allied territory, where Juliette finds an ambulance train and reunites with Kara. After a while, she decides to go back to Verdun, to wait for her family in the nearby caves. There, she meets a wounded Russian soldier named Dimitri.

The fourth part focuses on Dimitri, who dreams of peace but keeps fighting in the trenches to pay for his family’s freedom. After being injured on the battlefield and left behind, Dimitri is taken to safety by Juliette. When he is well enough to return to his company, she gives him the Golden Cross of Merit. Back in the trenches, most of the Russian troops soon decide to return to Russia as soon as news of the revolution reaches them. Dimitri initially stays with the French army, but he is soon made prisoner by German soldiers and taken to a work camp.

At the camp, which is Major Dressler’s house, Dimitri meets Elsa, who recognizes Sergeant Baum’s Golden Cross of Merit. She takes it back from him and Major Dressler offers Dimitri his freedom, telling him to look for work near Verdun.

The fifth part centers on Elsa, who is now facing starvation and ostracization in Germany due to her father’s role in the increasingly unpopular war. Elsa struggles to provide food for her and her mother, who becomes ill with the Spanish flu. When she receives a message from her father, who was injured after releasing hostages in Lille and is now in hiding, she enrolls Felix’s help to go find him. The two of them cross the French border and find Dimitri, who helps them look for Major Dressler. Once they have located him, Dimitri goes to get Juliette, now reunited with her family, and her father brings his cart to rescue the Major. Together, they head for the nearby ambulance train, where Kara saves his life. Major Dressler thanks the five young people and praises their courage, just as the war officially ends.