Now with the Morning Star

Now with the Morning Star, first published in 1944, is a well-crafted account of life in Germany during World War II, beginning with life in a peaceful monastery. Soon, however, the Nazis arrive and one of the monks is arrested and subsequently interned in a camp. American author Thomas Kernan, himself a prisoner of the Germans, wrote the book in 1943-44 during his own internment in a camp near Stuttgart. The book portrays life under Nazi-ruled Germany as well as the monk’s struggle to survive.

As author Kernan states in the book’s introduction: “This book was written between November 1943 and March 1944, the last months of my internment at Baden-Baden in Germany. Thanks to the fact that I was repatriated with diplomatic immunity, I was able to bring the manuscript out of Germany with me, and home to America on the S.S. Gripsholm.”