Historical fiction, inspired by true events, ​
Leonore’s Suite is an unexpected coming-of-age story.

"I went off to prison in a Cadillac."

With those words, thirteen-year-and-a-half-year-old Lee Iserson leads readers on a surprising journey through thirty-seven months of captivity under the Japanese.  A historical novel inspired by true events, this coming-of-age story shines a light on a little known saga of World War II:  the imprisonment of nearly four thousand Allied civilians (mostly American, largely families) in Manila's Santo Tomas Internment Camp.  Lee, her best friend Lulu, and their teen buddies journey to adulthood under dramatically adverse circumstances, enduring loss, cruelty, and starvation. Having lost her freedom and her father, Lee wonders:  Where is God in the darkness?  Did music have the power to heal?  As we deal with our own confinement in these troubled times,  Leonore's Suite sings to us. (And makes us feel lucky....)

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Manila’s Santo Tomas Internment Camp became home, school, theater, but always jailhouse for Lee.  As captivity and starvation take their toll, the music Lee's father composed for her thirteenth birthday inspires and sustains her.  Leonore's Suite is a story of courage, friendship, faith, and the indomitable human spirit.

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Liberation of Santo Tomas, February 1945; Lee is circled in white.