What an odd thing existence was,' she thinks to herself. 'Suddenly it all seemed like an illusion, a dream that had happened to someone else. She's just been hit by a car on her way out of a concert hallan experience that casts her mind back to other music, places, and people she's known. Now she's done it again with Transcription, an unconventional historical spy novel in which charactersnot to mention readersare never quite sure whom they can trust.Īt the center of Transcription is Juliet Armstrong, who we meet for the first time in 1981, on the eve of the wedding of Charles and Diana. Over her two-decade-plus career, Kate Atkinson has reinvented herself as a writer several times by working in, and often bending, a variety of genres, from the family drama of her Whitbread Awardwinning debut Behind the Scenes at the Museum, through her series of inventive crime novels starring police detective Jackson Brodie, and her literary master works about the Todd family during World War II. This novel wasn't as original as Life After Life, Atkinson's time-bending masterpiece, but it was so much fun to read.In Transcription, Kate Atkinson again exhibits her narrative mastery with an intriguing story of trust and betrayal set during and after World War II. The focus on female spies in the British homefront felt fresh and true to the gender-limits of that time. Kate Atkinson is very good at portraying the subtle nuances of social class differences and how that shapes character and motives. Period details grounded the story in history without slowing the pace. The page-turner plot made the journey fly. On the train I listened to the audiobook so I could watch the matched view and then switched to the hardcover on the plane home. I read Transcription whilst visiting family in England over the holidays, and it was the perfect travel book. The narrative flips back and forth between the two time periods, building tension. A decade later Juliet is working for the BBC on children's radio programming when her murky past catches up with her. Her cohorts try to take advantage of her naivety, but clever Juliet has an agenda of her own. In 1940, eighteen-year-old Juliet Armstrong is recruited to spy on Nazi sympathizers in London. Transcription by Kate Atkinson (2018) is a feminist remix of John le Carré with a touch of P.G.

Transcription by kate atkinson review