Susan Meissner's 'The Last Year of the War' tells the emotive tale of Elise Sontag, a German American teenager in 1943, whose idyllic life is shattered when her father is arrested as a suspected Nazi sympathizer. Thrust into a grim internment camp in Texas, Elise's world is turned upside down. Amid the hardship, the friendship she forges with Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen, becomes a beacon of hope. As they dream of a future free from barbed wire, their lives take an unexpected turn when Elise's family is exchanged for prisoners in Germany. Facing the harsh realities of war, Elise grapples with her identity and the prejudices of the time, fighting to reclaim her destiny.