Atkinson, Kate "Transcription"

Atkinson, Kate "Transcription" - 2018

I have read Kate Atkinson's "Behind the Scenes at the Museum"and quite liked it. Therefore, I could not pass this by when I saw the book in the library.

Written almost twenty years later, the story is just as captivating. We follow Juliet Armstrong through WWII where she works for MI5 and has various tasks, first as a typewriter, later also as a secret agent, but it always involves the observation of British fascists. We also get to know her colleagues and the people they observe both during and after the war.

The author has a great way to involve the reader with the story and to get her message through. I especially like the quote: "Do not equate nationalism with patriotism, nationalism is the first step on the road to Fascism." How true. I wish more people would at least try to understand that.

Wonderful historical fiction. The tale jumps around between past and present but because it mainly concentrates on the main character, Juliet Armstrong, it is easy to follow and understand.

Kate Atkinson also explains at the end what she took from real life and what she added herself. Great read.

From the back cover:

"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 radio 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 the best writers of our time."