I don’t usually read much Holocaust-related fiction, especially since I’ve read so many real, first-hand accounts in diaries, memoirs, etc. And — mostly since I’ve had my own children — it’s just not something I usually gravitate toward anymore. But I’m glad I didn’t realize that this book had so much of that because I would have missed this one and it was so good. I can’t recommend it enough. So far, it has an easy place in my top five books of the year.
World War II is newly over, but the Russians are the new threat. Edith Graham, an old maid (!), is recruited by her cousin Leo to go to Germany as a spy to help find higher-up Nazis who have gotten away, including one, Kurt von Stavenow, whom she had an affair with in her far past, and his wife, a close friend of hers. She is also soon recruited by two women — Adeline (a war photographer) and Dori (a very successful British spy during the war) — who also ask for her help in finding the same Nazis for a very different purpose. To help Adeline and Dori, she uses her alter ego Stella Snelling, food critic and recipe author, to send hidden messages in her recipes.
I loved Edith’s character. She is absolutely naïve and innocent, but she also has a very strong moral compass. She’s the kind of person you’d want to become friends with because you know she is going to be loyal and kind and still so much fun to be around (especially if she brings the food.)
And she is such a juxtaposition from Kurt’s character — and the absolute unquestionable evil that he represents — that she especially stands out as perhaps the best of the good guys.
There’s so much to dissect here, really, but it would be nearly impossible without spoiling the ending, which I won’t do here. But I will say, the ending was incredibly satisfying. This is a book that will stay with me for a while, but in a good way.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, William Morrow, and the Book Club Girl in exchange for my honest review. It did not influence my opinion.