JCO Book Club

White Rose Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey

War stories often mistake noise for depth. Not this one. White Rose, Black Forest is a taut, deliberate novel set in 1943 Germany. At its core: Franka, a woman marked by loss and resistance, and an injured airman whose secrets are stitched into the larger, bloodstained fabric of the Second World War.

This is not a tale of triumph, but of reckoning. Of the moral ambiguities that bloom when people are pushed to the edge of history and forced to choose between safety and conscience. Dempsey writes not for sentiment but for clarity—and delivers a story that asks: what would you risk, if everything were at stake?

Attendance is free of charge. 

Feel free to come early with a bag lunch at 11:30 to schmooze and eat before the discussion begins.