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A review by wordsofclover
Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook: A Novel by Celia Rees
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In 1946,Edith travels to Lubeck, Germany, to help set up schools for German children and the displaced young in a country still reeling from war and an ultimate loss. But Edith also has another mission, find a former beau of her youth who became to be a Nazi doctor and is now wanted by the British and Americans, as well as the Russians. In the form of recipes, Edith relays information back to her handlers as she embarks on a journey of danger, espionage and treachery.
This book started off a bit clunky for me but it grew stronger and stronger until I was hooked onto the pages, and could not put it down. At the start of the book, the story felt a bit weak and confusing for me as we were getting a lot of names that didn't mean anything yet and because we were meeting people Edith already had wartime connections with, it kind of felt we were being thrown into the middle of a conversation and trying to catch a thread.
However, as soon as Edith arrived in Germany and her work began, I felt myself really hooked by the story. I don't think I've read many other books set in Germany directly after WW2 when the country was completely devastated, civilians and refugees were starving and desperate and there was no government to run anything so the Brits and Americans who had their own interests in mind were doing a lot of the controlling.
I really liked the viewpoint of this - Celia Rees didn't shy away from the awful, hard to imagine, deeds of Nazi officers and doctors, as well as the sneakiness of the civilians who worshipped Hitler and his ilk. But she also made clear the suffering of the average German, and the people who were left to pick up the pieces when the SS did a runner, leaving a broken country behind them. I also really appreciated that neither the Brits or Americans were the big heroes in this tale - in fact, they were both as slimy and treacherous as each other and out for their own gain rather than making someone actually pay for what they did (which honestly was scream-inducing).
The female characters in this book are excellent - in fact, it is a female driven novel with the males just swooping in now and again to receive or give information or just be there as a brief distraction in the form of love making. Edith, Adeline and Dori were all fabulous characters and all different from each other - Edith, gentle yet intelligent, Dori smart and ruthless and Adeline was the sweeter one but ready to tell a story no matter how hard it would be. And then we had Elizabeth, Molly and Frau Schmidt on the other side - very different women but all powerful and big on the page in their own way.
As I said earlier, the story builds as plans are made and we are eventually standing on an Italian balcony with Edith not knowing what is about to happen. This book doesn't have a lot of action or gunfire, instead it is of hidden code, and fake smiles and an espionage built by women both good and evil.
Around the chapter 40 mark, I went back and read the very first chapter again as I suspected something (I was right) and it made the end even more thrilling for me.
I really enjoyed this, a different type of WW2 novel from ones I've read before where the real heroes are the women who joined up in bravery to go behind enemy lines and much more often than not, they never came back.
In 1946,Edith travels to Lubeck, Germany, to help set up schools for German children and the displaced young in a country still reeling from war and an ultimate loss. But Edith also has another mission, find a former beau of her youth who became to be a Nazi doctor and is now wanted by the British and Americans, as well as the Russians. In the form of recipes, Edith relays information back to her handlers as she embarks on a journey of danger, espionage and treachery.
This book started off a bit clunky for me but it grew stronger and stronger until I was hooked onto the pages, and could not put it down. At the start of the book, the story felt a bit weak and confusing for me as we were getting a lot of names that didn't mean anything yet and because we were meeting people Edith already had wartime connections with, it kind of felt we were being thrown into the middle of a conversation and trying to catch a thread.
However, as soon as Edith arrived in Germany and her work began, I felt myself really hooked by the story. I don't think I've read many other books set in Germany directly after WW2 when the country was completely devastated, civilians and refugees were starving and desperate and there was no government to run anything so the Brits and Americans who had their own interests in mind were doing a lot of the controlling.
I really liked the viewpoint of this - Celia Rees didn't shy away from the awful, hard to imagine, deeds of Nazi officers and doctors, as well as the sneakiness of the civilians who worshipped Hitler and his ilk. But she also made clear the suffering of the average German, and the people who were left to pick up the pieces when the SS did a runner, leaving a broken country behind them. I also really appreciated that neither the Brits or Americans were the big heroes in this tale - in fact, they were both as slimy and treacherous as each other and out for their own gain rather than making someone actually pay for what they did (which honestly was scream-inducing).
The female characters in this book are excellent - in fact, it is a female driven novel with the males just swooping in now and again to receive or give information or just be there as a brief distraction in the form of love making. Edith, Adeline and Dori were all fabulous characters and all different from each other - Edith, gentle yet intelligent, Dori smart and ruthless and Adeline was the sweeter one but ready to tell a story no matter how hard it would be. And then we had Elizabeth, Molly and Frau Schmidt on the other side - very different women but all powerful and big on the page in their own way.
As I said earlier, the story builds as plans are made and we are eventually standing on an Italian balcony with Edith not knowing what is about to happen. This book doesn't have a lot of action or gunfire, instead it is of hidden code, and fake smiles and an espionage built by women both good and evil.
Around the chapter 40 mark, I went back and read the very first chapter again as I suspected something (I was right) and it made the end even more thrilling for me.
I really enjoyed this, a different type of WW2 novel from ones I've read before where the real heroes are the women who joined up in bravery to go behind enemy lines and much more often than not, they never came back.