Kate Atkinson never fails to surprise her readers, as she so aptly demonstrates once again in Transcription. Describing the process of writing this novel in her fascinating afterword, she writes “...I would say that it felt like a wrenching apart of history followed by an imaginative reconstruction.” And imaginative it is. Juliet Armstrong, the main character among a large supporting cast, is far from unflawed, and she both wrenches and is wrenched by her role in MI5 during WWII. “They were all pawns, of course, in someone else’s great game.” And yet, her many of her actions were of her own making that could be likened to impulsive and spontaneous moves in that game. The plot is filled with many delicious twists and turns that could have resulted in chaos and confusion in hands less capable than Atkinson’s. Transcription is a shining prize in literature’s great game.

Atkinson, as she tells us in an Afterword, was inspired to write this novel after reading about spies and traitors in London during the Second World War. Thus her heroine, Juliet Armstrong, 18, naive and idealistic, in 1940 joins MI5, Britain’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency.

We begin, however, in 1981, when Juliet has just been hit by a car. As paramedics work to stabilize her, we join her in her thoughts as she remembers her past.

We first go back to 1940, when Juliet was working for Godfrey Toby, who masquerades as a Nazi agent and encourages people with pro-Fascist sympathies to report to him. Juliet sits next door in an adjacent apartment fit out with listening devices and she types up what they say. She observes:

“The main characters in this cast of perfidy were Dolly, Betty, Victor, Walter, Trude and Edith. Each reported on a myriad others, filaments in an evangelistic web of treachery that stretched across the country.”

But they are not the only suspicious characters in this drama. Even the other MI5 operatives act oddly, and suspect one another of being double agents. In fact it is rarely clear who is “one of us” and who is “one of them,” as Juliet muses, offering up wry commentary on them all. She also has numerous fantasies of the MI5 men having romantic fantasies about <em>her</em>, which never pan out, much to her chagrin.

After a while, Julie is asked to try to infiltrate the Right Club. [In real life, this was a small group of anti-semitic fascist sympathizers in Britain’s upper class. The group was formed in May 1939, when the Scottish Unionist MP Archibald Ramsay decided that the British Conservative Party needed to rid itself of perceived Jewish control.]

Juliet’s alias (her “nom de guerre”) for this mission was to be “Iris Carter-Jenkins.” Another MI5 agent to whom she reports, Perigrine Gibbons (“Perry”) asks her to get close to the wealthy Mrs. Scaife, who is “near the top of the heap.” He explains, “Iris has been ‘designed’ to appeal to her.” [It is possible Atkinson adopted this name as a veiled reference to Richard Mellon Scaife, “Funding Father of the Right,” - a right-wing conspiracy theorist (he died in 2014) whose money has established or sustained activist think tanks that have created and marketed very conservative ideas.]

Mrs. Scaife prattles on about the perils of international Jewry, and Iris acts sympathetic.

In alternate chapters, we move to 1950, when Juliet is now a producer at the BBC. Somewhat amusingly, among her colleagues are other former operatives of MI5. She begins to think someone is following her, and she receives a threatening note. There are other odd coincidences that happen to her. She fears her past life in espionage is catching up with her. But there is another possibility:

“Or perhaps someone playing a trick on her, “some kind of game to drive her mad. Gaslighting. But it still left the question of who. And why.”

Evaluation: I wasn’t so enamored of the plot itself of this story, but Atkinson’s skill with prose is a joy to read.

Not all of Kate Atkinson’s novels have been what she calls historical fiction, but the last couple have been. This novel may hew closest to the truth, though like she says in the Author’s Note at the end, she wrenched open history and stuffed it with imaginative reconstruction, at least one fantasy for each fact.

The author tells us afterward what her intentions were. This is particularly delicious, and I argue, respects the reader. We get to look into her construction and think. She answers questions we've formed, and instead of farming out possible answers to various reviewers, she’s blunt with us about elements we’d been wondering about. There is something comparable in theatre, when the actors takes off their masks for the final bow and we all celebrate together.

Atkinson returns to the Second World War, periodic releases from the National Archives of secrets from that time fueling her creative process. When she discovers [true fact] an ordinary-seeming bank clerk was a major cog in rounding up British supporters of Nazis, her story had a frame. When she discovered [true fact] hundreds and hundreds of pages of transcripts of conversations of dissident groups in London, her story had a heart.

What Kate Atkinson does is not necessarily unique (using historical documents to create fiction), but what she does with it is unique. Her style, tone, and characters are recognizably hers. She is funny: one knows there are people out there whose droll delivery of witty responses to ordinary questions is quintessentially British but we don’t come across it enough. Atkinson can do repartee.

By now Atkinson may be incapable now of writing fiction with a chronological timeline. This novel has only three time periods to work with and really only one central character, which simplifies the action enough that I only had to reread an earlier section once. This was partly due to my surprise, maybe a little resentment, and finally pleasure at being taken out of the action at what seemed like a critical moment…again! She’d done that to me in the previous section as well. I was burrowed in like a tick, and am yanked to a later, earlier, whatever time. (I didn't really mind--I was stretching out the experience of reading Atkinson again, luxuriously.) Atkinson manages to satisfy and confound a reader at the same time.

Atkinson’s characters always have the ‘ghost of Jackson Brodie’ about them. This is a very good thing, considering how much we liked Brodie and wouldn’t mind having him resurrected. We could make the case that the main character in this novel, Juliet Armstrong, is a female Jackson Brodie—honest and therefore vulnerable, she doesn’t have so high an opinion of herself that she is insufferable. In the end she is well able to take care of herself. She’s smart, and a very good liar, and keeps herself a little distant. After all, who can one trust?

At eighteen, Juliet is parentless: "her mother's death had revealed that there was no metaphor too ostentatious for grief." Young and alone, Juliet was not, however, callow. She lied like crazy through a job interview with a flippant and overly-inquisitive young man who interviewed her for a job, which she was surprised she got. Later she learned he'd known every lie, and appreciated the ease with which she misled him.

This book is about spies, spies working in the service of the British government, or so we believe. What is special is that we see what is British about them—what is ordinary, patriotic, courageous, honorable. But we also see a nation at war and we see duplicity, hunger, ambition, pettiness. Then we lay over that the work of the other nations at war, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and a few exceptional people emerge alive, not unscathed, but breathing at the end. The tension comes when we are not sure who will remain standing.

Atkinson writes about the middle of the twentieth century, but she could be talking about the twenty-first:
Juliet could still remember when Hitler had seemed like a harmless clown. No one was amused now. (“The clowns are the dangerous ones, Perry said.”)

and

Do not equate nationalism with patriotism…Nationalism is the first step on the road to Fascism.
One always senses the intelligence in Atkinson’s work. She not only writes a good story--which means getting the humanity right--she makes us think while we read. She’s unpredictable. And frankly, I like her politics. It’s always a pleasure to enjoy another of her books.

This novel is due out September 25th in the U.S., published by Little Brown; it looks like it will be out September 6th in Britain by Transworld. Preorder now!

Hitler was collecting countries like stamps. How long before he had the full set? Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I was swept into Transcription, enthralled with Kate Atkinson's atmospheric and witty writing, the recreation of England during the rise of Hitler, and the espionage ring with its vivid characters and uncertain alliances.

The novel opens in 1950 with twenty-eight-year-old Juliet working in post-war London for the BBC.

"There was a better life somewhere, Juliet supposed, if only she could be bothered to find it." Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Julie fingers her necklace of pearls, which she admits she took off a dead woman who was heavier to lift than she looked. We learn that Julie tells lies to strangers. She sees a man she used to know by two names, who tells her "I think you have confused me with someone else." And in a local cafe, a strange man observes her "in a way that was extremely disconcerting." Julie reflects on her time with MI5 during the war ten years previous, when she was a transcriptionist typing recordings of traitorous conversations.

Juliet's life working for MI5 alternates between boredom and mystery. She is never completely filled in on the operations, merely does as she is told. She drifts along with whatever comes, even into a mock engagement with a coworker who shows no physical interest in her. She is given a fake identity as part of a sting operation. She is a natural liar and playactor.

The future of England at stake, with Fascists sympathizers and Communist sympathizers and loyal royalists endeavoring for the prize.

This England, is it worth fighting for? Transcription by Kate Atkinson

The novel ends with unexpected turns of events.

"It was all such a waste of breath. War and peace. Peace and war. It would go on forever without end." Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I am so happy to have finally read Atkinson. I can't wait to get a hold of her previous books.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Kate Atkinson is really good writer. The descriptions she has for people is excellent and brings up the proper image. I loved the main character. There was something calculating about her. My only problem with the book is the timelines. We spend most of the time during the war and then after. When we first read main character's post-war life we get introduced to the all the characters in her life. Then for a long time we read about her World War II life with a different set of characters. By the time we get back to post-war, I have a hard time remembering who is who. I understand why the book was structured like that and the plot was masterfully done.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a free digital ARC, via Netgalley. I just finished the book, loved it (it is very rare for me to 5-star a book), and I plan to not only re-read it, but also buy a copy when it’s published.

This book is a special treat for readers who enjoy novels about people (especially women) involved in World War II and/or the Cold War intelligence work in England. Like many Kate Atkinson novels, there is some time jumping here. There are short bookends set in 1981, but the bulk of the novel is set in two time periods: 1940 and 1950.

In 1940, Juliet Armstrong is just 18 years old and an orphan when she is recruited to work for MI5. After a stint doing dull work in records, she’s chosen to help in a plan to entrap a ring of fifth columnists. In so many ways, her new role is not at all what she expected, and it will be the pivotal experience of her life. In 1950, Juliet works at the BBC as a producer, which seems to be a landing place for many former members of the intelligence services.

Atkinson’s close description of people and places draws the reader into this slow-burn story. Though I’ve read many books about WW2/Cold War espionage, I never saw where this was going. In part, because with Atkinson it’s not so much about having an action-packed plot as it is about examining the interior life of her main character and how she navigates the confusing and lonely world of intelligence work. That description makes the book sound so serious, doesn’t it? Well, it is serious, but also dryly funny, especially Juliet’s acerbic thoughts about her targets and, even more so, her male bosses.

As with Atkinson’s standout Life After Life (one of my all-time favorite books), Transcription is also a female Bildungsroman, and that’s where its deeper resonance lies. Just imagine yourself at 18, alone in 1940 England, with everything about your life and the life of your country in question. You’re recruited to work for an agency you’ve never heard of and required to keep everything completely secret. You’re on a need-to-know basis, and often your (male) superiors don’t seem to think you need to know much of anything. You’re just supposed to be a good girl and do what you’re told—but your superiors don’t always seem to be on the same page. Ultimately, it looks like you must just keep your mouth shut and make your choices. Choices that will have repercussions throughout the rest of your life.

One last thing: Do yourself a favor and be sure to read the Author's Note at the end of the book. Atkinson writes about what inspired her to write this book and lists other books that she recommends and were sources for her. Her inspiration story is fascinating, and several of her cited sources are now on my to-read list.

Once again, Atkinson managed to enthrall me with every word of this very unusual novel about spies in WW II London. With an unlikely heroine, Juliet Armstrong, sharing her fascinating tale, I could neither put the book down nor predict what she was going to reveal.

I have been a fan of all her books, and this doesn’t disappoint. Atkinson is able to present the reader with so many details that you are drawn into the plot. Every character is so well described that I felt I could find them next time I’m in London.

I will never walk on Wigmore Street again without mourning for Juliet.

Kudos to this brilliant author and all her lucky readers.