The magnificent new novel by the bestselling and award-winning Kate Atkinson, a major publishing event.

‘Think of it as an adventure, Perry had said right at the beginning of all this. And it had seemed like one. A bit of a lark, she had thought. A Girls’ Own adventure.’

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.

Ten years later, now a producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

Transcription is a work of rare depth and texture, a bravura modern novel of extraordinary power, wit and empathy. It is a triumphant work of fiction from one of this country’s most exceptional writers.

Review by Ben Hunter (Booktopia)

In a pacy and perilous escapade, eighteen-year-old Juliet Amstrong begins work in wartime London as an MI5 transcriber notating endless recorded conversations of fascist sympathisers and would-be spies. Ten years later, the threats of those war years re-emerge in new and frightening ways.

Atkinson, the award-winning creator of Life After Life and God in Ruins weaves a incredibly taut and wittily-told sequence of events that plunges the reader into the the depths of an ethically murky questioning of truth, justice and the war for knowledge. There’s much depth and empathy to be found in this addictive novel.

wow - atkinson does not disappoint

her mundane descriptions of the mundane life of the transcription work could have seemed dull, but really was very well done

some time ago i had made the decision not to read any more wartime set novels - my book group kept reading different WWI novels set mainly in germany or france and i figured i'd had enough- this one was different to those - looking at yet another perspective

it did take me some weeks to read this due to life getting in the way, but i am so glad it did, though my preference would have been to read it much quicker... it was very good - atkinson's writing is just wonderful

now it shall travel as a wishlist rabck

happy reading

;)

Thank you so much! Looking forward to reading it.

"Layers of layers of secrets." This sentence, somewhere towards the end, sums it all up perfectly. And it's great fun to peel away the layers! Then Atkinson even lets somebody say "We’re not approaching the end of a novel". (Lots of fun in this book, despite the serious themes, "Can I tempt you?" ...)
This is a spy fiction of a different kind, so unlike the conventional le Carré novels with their male protagonists. Atkinson has a good eye for gender issues and identity. And it ties in well with her two previous works, Life After Life and A God in Ruins (they are better though).
Recommendable!

Released at the 2019 UK UnConvention in Northampton: wishlist surprise!
Happy reading!

What a lovely surprise, ApoloniaX! Thank you so much for this book from my wishlist, I hope it won't be long before I write my review.