Wake up and smell the cider: Love, danger and betrayal intermingle in this suspenseful tale set in German-occupied France
Its title taken from a line fWake up and smell the cider: Love, danger and betrayal intermingle in this suspenseful tale set in German-occupied France
Its title taken from a line from poet W.H. Auden, In the Orchards of Our Mothers plunges readers inside two lesser-known worlds: the Breton countryside, redolent of apple groves and family secrets, and the efforts of Allied agents to free France from German occupation. At the heart of the novel is a love affair between two undercover operatives, French Resistance fighter Jacques Berlangier and his less-experienced American OSS partner Claire Skiffington, who is dropped behind enemy lines one harrowing night to aid one of Britain’s own.
McMaster draws on his own experiences in military intelligence and espionage to effectively render the complex inner life of an operative, whose every glance, word and action can spell life or death for himself and others, as well as for the mission. Being keenly observant is critical for surviving as an operative, the reader learns, as is trusting one’s instincts. These traits also magnetize Jacques and Claire to one another, initially as joint operatives, then as lovers, the pair dropping their mission pseudonyms as the first step in intimacy.
Set in postwar France, the second half of the novel returns to Jacques’ apple farm, where married life with Claire is upended by tragedy and assassination attempts whose source Jacques must ferret out. Ultimately, what lingers when you close the pages of this novel is a profound appreciation for the impossibly brave men and women who, against daunting odds, supported Allied operations under the cloak of darkness and secrecy....more
A phenomenal read, and the seminal memoir of the early AIDS crisis.
Devastating in its detail, both about the desperate search for treatments in the eaA phenomenal read, and the seminal memoir of the early AIDS crisis.
Devastating in its detail, both about the desperate search for treatments in the early 1980s and about the impact of AIDS on close relationships.
The writing is exceptional as well.
“Summer has always been good to me, even the bittersweet end, with the slant of yellow light.”
“Grief is a sword, or it is nothing.”
“We were doing the best we could with what we had left, and more and more it was like Diogenes tossing away the tin cup because he could drink with his hands. It turns out there is no end to learning what you can do without.”...more