A review by kategci
The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit

4.0

This is my second try at this review.....I was reminded of this book by Russell of Ink and Paper blog on a video of 5 backlist books that should be read. This is written in the "we" voice in shortish chapters. The wives were asked, taken or dragged to the new town of Los Alamos by their husbands who were scientists (mostly physicists) during World War II. They were recruited from elite universities to work on a top secret project that became the atomic bomb. TaraShea Nesbit writes so well about the primitive surroundings that New Mexico provides as well as the unusual living situations these women found themselves in. They were not allowed to have extended family visit them, they all had the same address, their husbands were keeping secrets from them and they were mostly reduced to the roles of housewife and mother as they were really not allowed to work outside their home or the compound they lived in. Despite being civilians, many of the aspects of their lives were proscribed by the military. As most of them were in their mid-twenties, there were a lot of babies born in the 2 1/2 years most of them lived there. There were a lot of parties, because there was little else for them to do. Nesbit succeeds in portraying the weirdness in their lives due to so many secrets being kept from them as well as how they all became great at keeping all their own secrets. Thanks to Russell for reminding me about this great story.