In 1947 during the aftermath of World War II, American girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and about to be thrown out of her family. She is also hoping that her cousin Rose, the sister she never had, is still alive after disappearing in Nazi-occupied France. When Charlie’s family ships her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, she escapes and heads to London to start to uncover the truth about what happened to Rose. In 1915, Eve Gardiner aches to join the fight against the Germans. One day she is offered this when she is recruited as a spy. After training, she is sent into occupied France, working with Lili, code name Alice, also known as the “queen of spies” as she runs a network right under enemy noses. Thirty years later, Eve’s life has been ravaged as a betrayal tore apart the Alice Network. When a young American girl comes knocking on her door asking questions, Eve is forced to face her past and uncover her own truths.
I absolutely LOVED this book, The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. It’s a bit of a long one, but the way it’s written is so beautiful it was hard to put down. The perspective it was written from was different from other books that I have read and I think it really added depth and mystery to the storyline. Another thing that is very interesting about this book is that some of the characters are actual real people; for example, Lili was an actual person and the actual “queen of spies” during World War I. The parts including her were either based on things that actually happened or did happen with very minor detail changed to include the characters in the book. I truly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading even if historical fiction isn’t your thing.
Book of the Week is an Opinion culture column written and created by Keenan Yates ‘24 used to give weekly book recommendations in the form of short blurbs and reviews.
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