Iola Reads selection honors WWI escape

The 2023 Community Selection for Iola Reads is “The Grand Escape,” by Neal Bascomb. It’s a narrative nonfiction account of a daring tunnel escape from a World War I German military prison.

Iola Reads is leaning into renewed interest in World War I.

The horrors of the first global war are vividly captured in the Oscar-nominated movie “All Quiet On the Western Front” at the same time distressing images from Russia’s attack on Ukraine are splayed daily across social media, news and television.

Enter “The Grand Escape,” a narrative nonfiction novel by Neal Bascomb, author of “The Nazi Hunters.” This engrossing tale recaptures the struggle of Allied soldiers and pilots imprisoned in one of the worst German prison camps, Holzminden — better known as “Hellminden.” Ten prisoners escaped through a tunnel, then faced a harrowing journey through enemy territory.

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