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Transcription - a novel
Oct. 10th, 2018 02:08 pmSome time ago, actually during my visit to San Francisco, I discovered the English author Kate Atkinson. She's a literary writer, and is not terribly prolific. When I saw she came out with a new novel, I bought it.
The novel is called Transcription and it's a work of historical fiction. During WWII, the British government was very concerned that homegrown groups of Nazis and their sympathizers would cause problems. They came up with a devious solution, namely having MI5 agents pretend to be German agents. The locals would go to these fake agents, pass their information on, and it would never get to Germany.
As part of this program, various meeting places were set up and bugged. The conversations therein where recorded and transcribed for official records. That's where the fiction starts. Kate imagines Juliet Armstrong, an 18-year-old Londoner, getting hired to be the typist for one of these operations. This being fiction, things happen. Things that are hard to describe without being spoilers, so I shan't.
This being Kate Atkinson, things happen in three different time periods. There's a brief section set in 1981 followed by sections set in 1940 and 1950. The 1950 sections are perhaps the most interesting. Here, Juliet, now a mid-level functionary in the BBC, finds herself being threatened by somebody from her past.
Kate is most definitely a British writer, which shows in her wonderful prose. She's also a keen observer of the human condition, and very good at creating the aura of a time period. For example, 1950 Juliet gets a book on Mediterranean cooking. Alas, the only olive oil she can find comes in a small jar at the drugstore for softening ear wax!
In any event, this book is highly recommended.
The novel is called Transcription and it's a work of historical fiction. During WWII, the British government was very concerned that homegrown groups of Nazis and their sympathizers would cause problems. They came up with a devious solution, namely having MI5 agents pretend to be German agents. The locals would go to these fake agents, pass their information on, and it would never get to Germany.
As part of this program, various meeting places were set up and bugged. The conversations therein where recorded and transcribed for official records. That's where the fiction starts. Kate imagines Juliet Armstrong, an 18-year-old Londoner, getting hired to be the typist for one of these operations. This being fiction, things happen. Things that are hard to describe without being spoilers, so I shan't.
This being Kate Atkinson, things happen in three different time periods. There's a brief section set in 1981 followed by sections set in 1940 and 1950. The 1950 sections are perhaps the most interesting. Here, Juliet, now a mid-level functionary in the BBC, finds herself being threatened by somebody from her past.
Kate is most definitely a British writer, which shows in her wonderful prose. She's also a keen observer of the human condition, and very good at creating the aura of a time period. For example, 1950 Juliet gets a book on Mediterranean cooking. Alas, the only olive oil she can find comes in a small jar at the drugstore for softening ear wax!
In any event, this book is highly recommended.
