Interview with Bruce Gardner, Author of The Rocket Man’s Daughter

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write The Rocket Man’s Daughter?

It was a desire to research and shed some useful light on the perplexing issues of moral culpability and accountability for Nazi war crimes in a historical fiction framework that inspired my writing of “The Rocket Man’s Daughter.” My hope is that, after reading this novel and considering the portrayals of its fictional and historical characters, the reader will come away (as I have) with a better appreciation of the immense pressures and temptations faced by individual German families as they were confronted with the cultish lures, demonic decrees, and horrific final death throes of one of the most evil regimes in all of human history: Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. Perhaps, as a result, we will not be so quick to make a blanket judgment of their actions and motives.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

Historical Fiction and Biography.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah), Richard Nixon: The Life. (John A. Farrell).

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

Chapter 51: the final Soviet assault on Berlin in April, 1945. Nail-biting Interactions between the novel’s heroine (Klara Neumann), her Hitler-obssessed sister Elke, and invading Russian soldiers.

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

The two greatest commandments: Love God; love others.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

Let’s not be so quick to judge the actions of others without understanding the facts and motives behind them.