Reviewed by Jane Shearer
She will risk everything to expose the truth
1943 – Bletchley Park, England. Mae Webster, immersed in the clandestine world of codebreaking at Bletchley Park, is recruited to help unveil a spy who’s on the brink of exposing Britain's most guarded secret, the cracking of the Enigma code. As war rages around her, Mae's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in love with the enigmatic New Zealand war photographer Jack Knight. Their relationship develops at pace, but tragedy strikes when one of Jack's photographs risks unmasking an elusive double agent.
1989 – Berlin, Germany. Rachel Talbot, a globetrotting photojournalist, ventures into the heart of a fractured Berlin in search of the Stasi officer whom her beloved grandmother Mae blames for betraying their family. Rachel finds herself entangled in the East German uprising and is irresistibly drawn to a charismatic activist. As the Cold War threatens to boil over, Rachel races to expose a traitor before it’s too late.
The War Photographers is an interesting juxtaposition of life in WWII London and then four decades later during the fall of the Berlin wall, as seen through the eyes of Mae and her granddaughter Rachel. Rachel is a war photographer, inspired to take up photography by her grandmother’s stories of Jack, Rachel’s grandfather, who died during WWII. The narrative is told in alternating fashion by Mae and Rachel.
Jack is a New Zealander who ended up in a senior, secret, role in the British war effort. Mae is working at Bletchley Park in one of the teams decoding German messages, after the Enigma code was broken. Neither Jack nor Mae can talk about their work, including with each other. The crux of the story is the identity of a supposed traitor who is handing Bletchley Park information to the Russians. Jack is run over in the street, Mae is sure the traitor killed him and carries this story to New Zealand as she thinks her life is in danger so needs to escape London to protect the daughter with whom she is pregnant.
We meet granddaughter Rachel in New Zealand, about to return to her job in London where she is struggling to be recognised as a photographer in a male-dominated industry where the men get sent to the exciting jobs and women are kept safely at home. Rachel is determined to be a success and finds a way to get to Hungary, to see an early breakdown of the separation between east and west, and then to Berlin, where momentum to cross the divide is gathering. Rachel is determined to document events in Berlin and also use the opportunity of being in East Germany to discover who killed her grandfather as her grandmother believes the killer escaped there after the war. Rachel achieves both her goals, although what she discovers is not what she nor her grandmother hoped for.
The War Photographers is well researched and detailed in its descriptions of two major world events. The connection between the two women and their related experiences of political divides at different times make for an interesting story one wants to keep reading. Mae’s adherence to keeping the secrets of the war, many years afterwards, is a reminder of how strong people can be when they feel they are part of an important common cause.
In summary, The War Photographers is an entertaining and informative read about historical events which should not be forgotten, particularly at a time when the world is becoming more fractured..
This review was first published in FlaxFlower reviews, which focuses on in-depth reviews of New Zealand books of all kinds, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Flaxflower founder and editor Bronwyn Elsmore.
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