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A review by botanyandbookends
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
4.0
‘The French night lay full and soft and warm outside my window...’
I wouldn’t call myself an official Francophile, but I do really enjoy stories that take place in Europe, Paris in particular. Late last night I finished reading ‘The Alice Network’, by Kate Quinn - a book about women spies during World War I. It was based off true historical heroines who spied and shuttled information back and forth across enemy lines. Messages wrapped inside rings, written on petticoats, wrapped around hair pins, or placed inside false bottoms of a cake box. Women excelled since popular belief was that women weren’t smart enough to spy or courageous enough to sneak across enemy lines. They were simply meant to be pretty adornment for a German soldier’s roving eye.
The author’s note at the end of the book, as well as excerpts from historical documents, were an added benefit to this historical fiction. Quinn’s elegant phrasing and descriptive imagery beautifully wove together a tale of feminine heroics as well as inevitable war-torn sadness.
‘We lingered inside are fragile bubble of happiness, the kind of happiness that sits on top of melancholy as easily as icing on the cake.’
I wouldn’t call myself an official Francophile, but I do really enjoy stories that take place in Europe, Paris in particular. Late last night I finished reading ‘The Alice Network’, by Kate Quinn - a book about women spies during World War I. It was based off true historical heroines who spied and shuttled information back and forth across enemy lines. Messages wrapped inside rings, written on petticoats, wrapped around hair pins, or placed inside false bottoms of a cake box. Women excelled since popular belief was that women weren’t smart enough to spy or courageous enough to sneak across enemy lines. They were simply meant to be pretty adornment for a German soldier’s roving eye.
The author’s note at the end of the book, as well as excerpts from historical documents, were an added benefit to this historical fiction. Quinn’s elegant phrasing and descriptive imagery beautifully wove together a tale of feminine heroics as well as inevitable war-torn sadness.
‘We lingered inside are fragile bubble of happiness, the kind of happiness that sits on top of melancholy as easily as icing on the cake.’