This fictionalized account of J. D. Salinger’s WWII years and recovery (1942-47) opens in New York City. He lives with his parents in their Park Avenue co-op and has a budding romance with Eugene O’Neill’s gorgeous daughter. The draft rips him away from this comfortable life. Nearly fluent in German and French, Salinger is taken by the Counter Intelligence Corps. These hard-edged soldiers interrogate captives, seek out danger (poisoned pretzels, booby-trapped toilet seats), and uncover traitors. His unit lands with the invading armies on D-Day and accompanies them from Utah Beach, up through Belgium, into Paris, then to Bavaria, and the rescue of living skeletons at a concentration camp. Always the writer/observer, Salinger sees details others do not and absorbs deeply the carnage close to him.