Book description
It is 1943, and a team of cryptanalysts led by Tom Jericho have broken the Enigma code of Hitler's U-boats. But inside the code-breaking centre, a woman disappears and authorities suspect the presence of a traitor, it is only when Jericho himself falls under suspicion that he must unmask the…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Enigma as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I love this famous book set in WW2 because it describes life in the 1940s so realistically.
It reminds me that today’s modern conveniences were not always available, and people had to make do with what they could get. I love it because it’s so clever, going into the nuts and bolts of Bletchley Park and the effort to break Germany’s Enigma machine to keep Britain’s merchant fleet safer.
Robert Harris’s writing style is superb, and I have read the book many times, always finding it difficult to stop reading. The book is character-led, which I particularly like. The people…
From Gill's list on Gill Mather's favorite historical fiction with mystery and authenticity.
Robert Harris has created a complex tale from historical truths. And once again, it is the people—the characters who inhabit this book make it special.
Thomas Jericho is on the edge. It’s 1943, and he has suffered a breakdown trying to crack the Enigma code, solve the mystery of his missing girlfriend, and simultaneously grapple with his own demons. He is so finely drawn and desperately fragile that we wonder how he can go on, yet he does.
Jericho exists in the grim yet wonderfully atmospheric setting of wartime England as we move from Cambridge to Bletchley Park. This beautifully…
Related to my love of libraries is my adoration for codes and puzzles and secretive things. This novel is a fictionalized account of World War II codebreakers who race against the clock to break an unbreakable Nazi cipher. The hero’s life is complicated by the arrival of a beautiful MI5 officer...
From Lance's list on The best books for historical action...and some occasional kissing.
If you love Enigma...
Almost Home
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
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