Written by Helen Dunmore⭐ ⭐ ⭐
|
The blurb:
The Cold War is at its height, and a spy may be a friend or neighbour, colleague or lover.
At the end of a suburban garden, in the pouring rain, a woman buries a briefcase deep in the earth.
She believes that she is protecting her family.
What she will learn is that no one is immune from betrayal or the devastating consequences of exposure.
Political Thriller
Fiction
My thoughts:
Exposure was chosen for October's Book Club read, and is set in the 1960's during the Cold War.It tells the story of Simon Callington, a civil servant working at the Admiralty, who is arrested for passing sensitive information to the Russians. He has, of course, been set up, but has no way to prove his innocence. He has been in possession of the missing file, but not because he intended to reveal its contents to anyone. He does not know that his wife, Lily, found the file, and buried it in their London-home's garden.
Since the news of Simon's arrest broke, Lily has taken herself and their three children, Paul, Sally and Bridget, to live in a remote part of Kent by the sea. She has rented their London home, and now has a part-time job as a housekeeper to a retired solicitor. The children are attending the local school, and have learned how to pick sea coal to supplement the family's income.
Exposure is a story set during the Cold War, about espionage, relationships, loyalties, and forgiveness. I very much enjoyed reading about Lily, and how she coped with all that was thrown at her - losing her job, moving her family away from all things familiar, managing on a much reduced income, having her husband imprisoned, and unexpectedly discovering things she never knew about him.
I didn't get into this story until just after halfway through, when Lily's story takes centre stage. Hers was the story, from the blurb, that I thought the book was about. I couldn't summon any interest for Giles Holloway's history and involvement with Simon, or Julian Clowde's role as head of the spy ring.
The plot is similar to Edith Nesbitt's The Railway Children, in which the father is unjustly accused of espionage and imprisoned, but is eventually exonerated. In Exposure the children only have supporting roles, and it is the mother, Lily, who is the heroine in this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment