Scott Bradley James, like the US Navy in which he serves, is uncertain of the course he sails, both in war and love. While the threat of defeat that loomed over the first half of America’s war against Japan is behind him, much danger lies ahead. Disastrous mistakes can still be made—and they will be. For James and his comrades, their cost will be high indeed—both at sea against a fanatic foe, and on the home front in relations of the heart.

Reminiscent of Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance, The Turning Tide fuses disparate elements into a masterpiece of historical fiction. It is a riveting account of some of the US military’s most iconic battles, from the Leyte Gulf to Iwo Jima, and on to Okinawa and the dropping of the atomic bomb. It is also a meditation on command. But what distinguishes this lyrical novel is its power to capture the forces at work on those caught in the whirlwind of war: their courage, fear, and loyalty to friend and country in contrast to the pettiness of vanity and personal ambition.

Rarely has an understanding of the canvas of war been more happily married to a reckoning with the character of combatants alongside their lovers at home. As in Dante’s Inferno, Scott Bradley James passes through the pain of conflict and confusion navigating an uncaring sea, learning as he sails. Through the power of fiction, the fruits of his hard-won education in the most consequential war of our nation’s history is within reach of every reader.