Book Review: The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

 My Rating: 3.5⭐

“Understanding and knowledge were wasted if one did not apply them to life.”

 In 1943, Ava   Harper,  a librarian working in the Rare Book Room at the Library of Congress in Washington DC  recruited to work in Lisbon, Portugal,  a neutral zone during WWII to gather intelligence on the enemy from all available print media. When Ava lands in Lisbon, she finds that her job entails collecting as much as she can from magazines and newspapers but having to do so while navigating her way around Nazi spies and the Portuguese secret police. She also befriends many Jews who are waiting for onward travel Visas in Lisbon and learns more about the events that forced them to flee Europe as well as the hurdles involved in their onward journey. She is adamant that their stories and voices are not lost and takes the initiative to document as much as she can.

In Nazi-occupied France, Helene Belanger ( under the assumed name Elaine Rousseau) joins the Resistance in Lyon after her husband Joseph, who unbeknownst to her was a part of the Resistance, is arrested and imprisoned. Her work includes working in a clandestine press -  printing and distributing anti-Nazi newspapers. At every step, she faces the danger of discovery and imprisonment, and much worse, but she is determined to contribute in the efforts to defeat the enemy.

These two women’s stories come together through a coded message Helen/Elaine sends through the newspaper – a code Ava manages to decipher with the help of her friends in Lisbon – and what follows is a series of events in which both these women put everything at risk to save a Jewish mother and child from capture and find passage to America.

“Words have such incredible power.”

The Author’s Note at the end of the book is very informative and shows the amount of research that went into crafting this story. I always enjoy delving into the history behind fiction set in this era. This is the first time I read about WWII Lisbon and the role librarians played in gathering information during the war. I was also unaware of how Lisbon was a refuge for those who were fleeing persecution. It’s never easy to read about the plight of Jews in WWII Europe and the horrors of war. The author however keeps the tone relatively restrained while alluding to the Holocaust. 

This is a well-written book. Both these women are different in their circumstances and backgrounds but both are brave and smart and willing to go beyond the call of duty to help those who require assistance. Both the parallel storylines are well narrated and are interesting in their own way. The author covers a lot of ground in this novel – the French Resistance and the significance of the written word, Lisbon’s role in WWII, espionage and much more. What works for this novel is the setting/settings but  I also felt that the story took a while to gain momentum. While I did enjoy both the tracks in this novel,  I think I expected a stronger espionage track, which was mostly relegated to the background. The Resistance track was very strong and the character of Helene/Elaine was well-developed. I feel Ava’s track had much potential but after a point fell flat. While parts of it were compelling, the story overall, was not as impactful as it could have been. In short , while I really liked The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin, I did not love it. 

 “I mean that this present we live in is tomorrow’s history. You ask if this is important. This is the education for our future, to learn from the mistakes that have been made now and never let atrocities such as this continue or be repeated.”