And as the epigraph makes clear, there is more to this tale than is immediately apparent. Through the layers of story, characters (including the Nazis) spring to life. She also describes, almost casually, her unbearable current situation and the SS officer who holds her life in his hands and his beleaguered female associate, who translates the narrative each day. Instead, she describes her friendship with Maddie, the pilot who flew them to France, as well as the real details of the British War Effort: the breaking down of class barriers, the opportunities, the fears and victories not only of war, but of daily life. But her story is more than a listing of wireless codes or aircraft types. Like Scheherezade, to whom she is compared by the SS officer in charge of her case, she dribbles out information-“everything I can remember about the British War Effort”-in exchange for time and a reprieve from torture. In a cell in Nazi-occupied France, a young woman writes. Breaking away from Arthurian legends ( The Winter Prince, 1993, etc.), Wein delivers a heartbreaking tale of friendship during World War II.
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