Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Little, Brown and Co. If you enjoyed this book and want to read another character-driven novel about spy work, I recommend Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (about Cold War espionage in Argentina). I liked everything about the book except I had mixed feelings about the ending (which of course I can’t write about). (“The clowns are the dangerous ones, Perry said.”) Juliet could still remember when Hitler had seemed like a harmless clown. The book is particularly relevant today, in its themes relating to nationalism, patriotism, and fascism. This kind of information always adds to my appreciation of a historical novel. I found the story fascinating and enjoyed the suspense Atkinson builds, where we never quite know the full story since the work of a spy is not to know what other spies are doing or who they are working for.Ītkinson gives an explanation at the end of the book of what was fact and what was invented, and she describes the historical discoveries that inspired the book. I loved her wry sense of humor (and Atkinson’s way of writing it). She’s innocent in some ways but also seems pretty jaded. She’s brave, although you get the sense she doesn’t really know what she’s gotten herself into – it takes a while for her to take the work they do seriously. She’s fairly distant and doesn’t have much trouble being duplicitous. She’s a good person but not always a terribly likable one (readers who need to love their main character may be put off). She’s trying to leave spy work behind her when she receives a threatening note (“you’ll pay for what you did”) and then she sees a former colleague on the street who pretends not to know her. Then we go to 1950, where Juliet is struggling to make a post-war life for herself with a somewhat mundane job working for the BBC. Then the book jumps back to 1940, where young Juliet is recruited first to transcribe secret recordings of Third Reich supporters, and then as a secret agent infiltrating “the fifth column”. I think that’s probably deliberate because, as an agent, the main character Juliet Armstrong never quite knows who’s doing what or for which side.Īrmstrong is introduced at the very beginning of the novel as a 60-year old in 1981. It was a fast read for me, one that never slowed or got dull, although it does at times get a bit confusing. It’s thoughtful, interesting historical fiction written with Atkinson’s attention to detail and character. I also know there are some Atkinson fans who didn’t love Life After Life and prefer something a little more straightforward, so this book should please them as well. Readers of historical fiction will enjoy this book about MI5 agents in World War II (and post-WWII) London.
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