The Diplomat's Wife

The Diplomat's Wife

by Pam Jenoff

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  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.

From the back of the book

Review:  I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning.  I felt like the character's emotions and feelings were lacking.  Marta is rescued from a Nazi prison camp and she is in terrible condition but yet she seems to recover physically fairly quickly and easily.  She has lost everything and everyone and yes, she does talk about where to go next, I just didn't feel it.  I couldn't feel the absolute despair that she should have been feeling.  When Marta meets Paula, I really didn't feel anything about their love at first sight.  I found it hard to believe that she was willing to be intimate with him after 2 meetings and that she was ready to marry him.  The book seemed fairly flat.  But once the action picks up when she goes on a mission for the British government, the book gets better.  I finally believed her feelings during this part of the book and after.  The middle and the end really changed my mind about the book.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars