Books on the Vale Book Club’s reading list can be checked out at the Vale Library. (Enterprise file photo)
“The Alice Network,” a new historical novel from bestselling author Kate Quinn, will be the focus of the Vale Book Club meeting this Thursday, Dec. 2.
The group will meet at the home of Carol Spears, 683 Cottage St., Vale, at 7 p.m. Lucy Hutchens will act as facilitator.
The book follows two women – a spy recruited in the real-life Alice network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947 – in a story of courage and redemption.
In 1947, amid the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American College girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She is also hoping to find her beloved cousin, Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France, during the war.
When her parents banish her to Europe to take care of the “little problem,” Charlie heads to London to begin her search.
In 1915, a year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight and gets her chance when she is recruited as a spy. She is trained in France by Lilli, the “Queen of Spies,” who manages a network of agents right under the enemy’s nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Charlie barges into her life uttering a name Eve has not heard in decades and launches them both on a mission to find the truth, no matter where it leads.
This page turner, based on historical facts, is both funny and heartbreaking.
For information about the club, contact Lucy Hutchens, 208-739-6954, or Marge Mitchell, 208-739-6777.
The club’s January book selection is “Farm Girl, Rural Life Humor from a Farmer’s Daughter,” by Shanna Wiggins, about a childhood on a farm in the eastern Oregon desert.
Note: Review information is excerpted from www.Katequinnauthor/books/the-alice-network/ and NPR Book Reviews online.
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