I recently picked up a book from the library that was a completely random selection. When I went, I didn’t really know what I had in mind to read or even what I was in the mood for. Digging out my Goodreads, I poked around, found a title that looked interesting and made my way to the correct section. Well, I found the author but not the exact title.
Familiarizing myself with her published titles, I thought, ooh, I’d like to read this someday, but not today. Until I got to the last title. Glancing at what it was about, all I needed to see was “...cold war…” and I said, this is it!
The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay is full of mystery, intrigue, family secrets and the CIA. It tells the story of Louisa Voekler, a CIA code breaker who recognizes a symbol on an envelope at work one day. A symbol that she knows from outside of her secret code breaking work.
Louisa’s first language is German and she lives with her Oma in America. Raised by her Oma and Opa who fled from Berlin in 1961, shortly after the wall went up, she believes she’s an orphan and that her grandparents immigrated for a better paying job.
Well, once she noticed that little symbol, she relentlessly searched for the answers to her burning questions. In the process she uncovered buried family secrets, discovered the truth about her parents and herself and learned that her career was intentionally veered off on a different course.
I don’t want to give too much away because it was such a delight to journey through the plot of this story and I don’t want to take that away from you!
I mean, I couldn’t put it down. And I kept thinking about it when I was supposed to be doing other things. Once I finished it, I immediately pushed it into my mother’s hands for her to read, too. She read it in a matter of days. Our enthusiasm for this book even got my Beau interested in reading it, too!
Part of what I really enjoyed about how the author crafted this story was in how wholesome the language was. No swear words, no sexy scenes. The subject matter was harsh enough as it was since the author went into detail of some of the atrocities of living behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin under the Stasi.
I’m a sucker for a story about spies and I found immersing myself in the Cold War time period quite thrilling! I felt connected to the characters, and not just because they were German and immigrants to the US, which is very similar to my own family history. But because they were well-rounded and grew over the course of the story.
The ending was very satisfying and I just wish there was a sequel with the same characters. I can imagine more stories of their lives and intrigue post the Cold War.
