-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home
by Sally Mott Freeman
The extraordinary, real-life adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II and their mad race to change history - and save one of their own.
They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war's most crucial moments. Bill is picked by Roosevelt to run his first Map Room in Washington. Benny is the gunnery and anti-aircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only carriers to escape Pearl Harbor and by the end of 1942 the last one left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest and least distinguished of the three, is shuffled off to the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to the Philippines and listed as missing-in-action after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him.
Based on ten years of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and primary sources including diaries, unpublished memoirs, and letters half-forgotten in basements, The Jersey Brothers is a remarkable story of agony and triumph - from the home front to Roosevelt's White House, and Pearl Harbor to Midway and Bataan. It is the story, written with intimate, novelistic detail, of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the Japanese do everything short of killing him. And it is, above all, a story of brotherly love: of three men finding their loyalty to each other tested under the tortures of war - and knowing that their success or failure to save their youngest brother will shape their family forever.
What’s the best nonfiction book you read in 2025?
...z by Anne Sebba gets first prize. Other favorites were: All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner Camera Girl by Carl Sferrazza Anthony The Jersey Brothers by Sally Mott Freeman King by Jonathan Eig (especially special since I attended an in-person interview with the author during our vacation in Florida last March)
-Diane_Jones
"Starred Review. An obvious labor of love.... A touching, suspenseful and deeply troubling story of one family's patriotic devotion and betrayal.... Meticulously researched and compelling history." - Kirkus
"Freeman proves to be a strongly motivated researcher, who poignantly conveys a sorrowful experience encountered by thousands of American families in WWII." - Booklist
"A touching story that would have been better in abbreviated form ... Recommended for readers looking for personal accounts of World War II." - Library Journal
"An evocative real-life tale of agony and triumph about brotherly love and a young American who discovers his personal courage amidst the tortures of war. Freeman had me rooting for these Jersey boys on every page." - James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers
"A masterpiece of storytelling, infused with heroism and adventure. This moving portrait of three brothers is a brilliantly researched and written history of America's wartime role in the Pacific." - Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Those Angry Days
"A gripping, deeply moving saga of an American family whose experiences cast a new light on one of the most harrowing and heroic periods in American history. In their devotion to each other and to their country, these three brothers inspire us with courage, intelligence, and exceptional resilience." - Sally Bedell Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen
"The Jersey Brothers captures the real-life story of three brothers whose bond to family and love for country take them to extraordinary lengths at one of the most pivotal points in American history. From the decks of the USS Enterprise to the depths of the Japanese prison camps, Sally Mott Freeman takes readers on an epic journey in this remarkable tribute to the Greatest Generation." - Senator John McCain, New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Soldiers
"A searing story of courage, love, and family. The Jersey Brothers is impressively broad in scope - from Roosevelt's White House to the great battles of the Pacific to prisoner of war camps deep in the Philippine jungle - and brimming with endlessly fascinating details that only real soldiers could know." - Jay Winik, New York Times bestselling author of 1944
This information about The Jersey Brothers was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sally Mott Freeman was a speechwriter and media and public relations executive for twenty-five years. She is currently Board Chair of The Writer's Center, the premier independent literary center in the mid-Atlantic. She graduated with a degree in English Literature from Sweet Briar College, which tapped her for its 2016 Distinguished Alumna award, and also studied Renaissance Literature at the University of Exeter, England. The Jersey Brothers is her first book.
If you liked The Jersey Brothers, try these:
by Brendan Mathews
Published 2018
Three brothers caught up in a whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal culminating in an assassination plot, set in prewar New York.
by Affinity Konar
Published 2017
"One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year" (Anthony Doerr) about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II.
by Barry Moser
Published 2015
"We Were Brothers, Barry Moser's beautiful - and beautifully illustrated - new book, tells the wrenching and redeeming story of brothers who take different paths and yet ultimately find their ways back to each other...Their careful reconciliation after decades of strife and avoidance is sad, moving, and joyful all at the same time." - Andrew ...
The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
