The War I Finally Won

The War I Finally Won is a work of historical fiction written by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley. The novel is intended for middle grade readers. It was published in 2017, and has won numerous awards, including qualifying for the New York Times Best Seller list, winning the California Young Reader’s Medal, and being named one of the Washington Post’s Best Children’s Books of the Year. The War I Finally Won is a sequel to Bradley’s highly distinguished 2015 novel, The War That Saved My Life.

Plot Summary

Set in Britain from 1940 to 1943, The War I Finally Won recounts three years in the lives of 11-year-old Ada and her six-year-old brother Jamie. Ada and Jamie live with a woman named Susan in a small village in Kent. Ada and Jamie were evacuated from the London slums to the countryside at the start of World War II (1939), and Susan insisted on becoming their guardian after learning that their mother is abusive.

The novel opens as Ada prepares for surgery to straighten her ankle. Previously, she had an untreated clubfoot that made the sole of her foot face upward. When she awakens after surgery, she learns that her mother (Mam) was killed in a bombing raid in London. Ada worries that she and Jamie will be sent to an orphanage, but Susan reassures her that they remain living with her.

After weeks of healing, Ada recovers enough to wear shoes and walk, which brings her considerable joy. After Ada’s recovery, she, Jamie, and Susan return to Kent and move into a cottage on the grounds of a large estate owned by local gentry, the Thortons. Ada is good friends with the Thortons’ daughter, Maggie, and Ada and Jamie both admire the Thortons’ son, Jonathan.

Lady Thorton comes to the cottage where Ada, Jamie, and Susan live and announces that she will be moving in with them. Thorton House has been requisitioned by the government for the duration of the war. Soon after Lady Thorton moves in, Lord Thorton arrives to tell the household that a 16-year-old German girl named Ruth will be moving in with them. Ruth and her parents were persecuted as Jews by the Nazis and fled Germany before the war started. Lady Thorton, Ada, Jamie, and much of the village are suspicious of Ruth for being German. Only Susan immediately appreciates that Ruth is not inherently evil or untrustworthy.

The household struggles with the tension created by Ruth’s presence and by class differences. Lady Thorton is aristocratic and does not initially contribute to the household, but she gradually learns to pitch in. Ada and Jamie, and eventually Lady Thorton, also grow to trust Ruth. Ada, Ruth, and Maggie (who attends boarding school but visits on school holidays) eventually come to regard each other as sisters. Despite these positive developments, the war is a constant presence in their lives. The entire household is rocked by the tragic death of Jonathan Thorton, who was a wartime pilot for the British Air Force.

Soon after, Susan becomes ill with pneumonia and is rushed to the hospital in London. Ada is sick with fear about Susan’s condition, petrified that Susan will die, leaving Ada and Jamie alone again. Recognizing Ada’s intense anxiety, Lady Thorton brings her to London to visit Susan. Everyone, especially Ada, is relieved when Susan recovers and returns home.

For Ada’s 14th birthday, she insists that she, Jamie, and Susan go on a day trip. Ada surprises Susan by taking them to the grave of Becky, Susan’s “best friend” who died years previously (it is implied Becky and Susan were in a romantic relationship). They encounter Becky’s mother at the graveyard, and Susan invites Becky’s mother to visit them in Kent.