My initial assumption, on reading the title of this novel, was that the codebreaker would be male. Please forgive me for that patriarchal assumption, because this is a mother-daughter story, and the codebreaker in question is Lillian, Dinah’s mother. The story takes place over two timelines–Dinah’s propaganda work with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II, and Lily’s codebreaking work in World War I.
While the story is set 80 and 100 years ago, it deals with eternal questions about the relationships between mothers and daughters, and the question of how (especially as women) we find our purpose. Is it enough to be a wife and mother? This leads to other questions – what if we aren’t a wife, or if we can’t be a mother? Then where is our purpose?
Lily/Lillian is a viewpoint character in both timelines, so we see her struggle with letting her adult daughter go, and we see Dinah’s struggle to be the independent adult daughter. We also see the power of friendship.
The story is best encapsulated in the quote above. The Codebreaker’s Daughter isn’t like so many World War II stories, stories of ordinary people dong extraordinary things. It’s more a celebration of ordinary people doing ordinary things–the things they are called to do–and being satisfied with that.
It’s a quiet and slow story until almost the very end, but it is a story that raises and addresses some difficult universal (ordinary) questions.
Recommended for fans of World War II fiction from authors such as Jennifer Mistmorgan, or fans of fiction featuring codes and ciphers from authors such as Roseanna M White.
Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Amy Lynn Green
Amy Lynn Green is a lifelong lover of books, history, and library cards. She worked in publishing for six years before writing her first historical fiction novel, based on the WWII home front of Minnesota, the state where she lives, works, and survives long winters. She has taught classes on marketing at writer’s conferences and regularly encourages established and aspiring authors in their publication journeys. In her novels (and her daily life), she loves exploring the intersection of faith and fiction and searches for answers to present-day questions by looking to the past.
If she had lived in the 1940s, you would have found her writing long letters to friends and family, daydreaming about creating an original radio drama, and drinking copious amounts of non-rationed tea. (Actually, these things are fairly accurate for her modern life as well.)
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About The Codebreaker’s Daughter
