The Diplomat's Wife

How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not? I should have died.... But I am here.

1945. Surviving the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life. Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future. But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul's plane crashes.

Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring. But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past.

This book was a breath of fresh air... not so much because of the plot or story or anything but because it is an ACTUAL BOOK! Like with pages and stuff. I have been reading far too many things on my ereader lately. I mean, the ereader is convienient and all, but it's just not the same.

I picked this book up way back when I was working at McNally because I had read another of Pam Jenoff's books and really quite enjoyed it. She writes historical fiction, although they are a slightly lighter read than most Holocaust/WWII stories because generally they take place after, in the recovery phase of the trauma suffered by victims and veterans rather than deeply immersed in the horrific events that took place from 1939-45. In The Diplomat's Wife, we get a slight glimpse of Marta in a Nazi prison, but within the first chapter she was rescued and into a hospital by the second. 

The classification of this book bothered me a bit because it was shelved in Romance when I bought it, but I knew if it was anything like Jenoff's first book, The Kommandant's Girl, it would be unfair to genre it as Romance. In my humble opinion, Romance novels generally have a very unrealistic expectations of what Romance is. With muscly men sweeping damsels off of their feet in fits of passion, and such. They are really meant to be a form of escapsim (I want say "for lonely housewives", but I don't want to sound prejudice... but really, that's what I am thinking... so... I guess I am prejudice. HELLO BOOK SNOB ANNIE!). The Diplomat's Wife really didn't have that unrealistic aspect. Paul and Marta's courtship, although short, was (what I understand to be) typical of the time. With much of the world still reeling from the war, many young couples took the "carpe diem" approach to life, because they had lived the fact that any day could be their last. Also, the relationship between Marta and Simon was interesting because of her pregnancy and was completely unromantic, but very realistic, and I am sure happened often to those left pregnant and unmarried or widowed at the time.

FACT CHECK! Once the war was officially declared over in the book Fireworks lit up all of Paris, and that made me think "when were fireworks invented, anyway?". To my surprise, 7th Century China, but by the 15th century, their use was common in Europe and apparently the place to get good fireworks was from Italy. I love it when fact checking leads me to learn things, and supports the book I read insofar as that the author did their research. :)

I would recommend this book to people who like Chick Lit AND Historical Fiction. It seems she had her facts right and the plot was light and enjoyable. I was also slightly concerned mid way through the book that I knew how it was going to end, but was pleasantly surprised by the route the plot took. Great story, great ending, pretty solid read.