The Librarian Spy

 The Librarian Spy  written by Madaline Martin  is another in a long line of historical novels being written about books, libraries and the Holocaust.  Martin also wrote The Last Bookshop in London and The Keeper of Hidden Books both books about the role books and librarians played in World War II.

In this novel we meet two different women who lives were changed by World War II.  Helene who as a young married woman moves with her husband to Lyon, France from Paris.  There she is just a housewife as her husband tries to protect her from the horror of a war unfolding.  When he does not come home one evening from work, after they argued in the morning, Helene does not know what to think.  When she finds out her husband was a leader in the Resistance, she regrets the arguments they had before he left.  Taking on a new persona, Helene becomes Elaine and starts to work for the Resistance.  She is determined to make a difference in the war and help end the atrocities.  

Meanwhile living a different kind of life, Ava Harper leaves her job at the Library of Congress in the Rare Books room to come to Lisbon, Portugal to help the United States uncover what is happening in Europe.  She works reading the local newspapers and sending messages back to the US.  A coded message catches her eye and she gets involved in trying to rescue a young Jewish mother and her child in their effort to escape to America.  Ava also finds herself anxious to help the people who are being persecuted at personal risk to herself.  She must be careful when she finds the man across the hall ahs been taken away by police.  Then she is being followed and she realizes someone has been coming in her apartment looking throuogh her things.  It is a race against time to help Sarah and Noah get on a ship to the US

Based on a composite of real people and real events of World War II, Martin has created characters who are living the lives experiences she imagines were happening in Portugal and France in 1943.  This is a well researched novel that will leave you amazed by the bravery and caring of these characters.