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Summary
Oct. 11, 1943 A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a shot at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. They'll get the truth out of her. But it won't be what they expect. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure, and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from a merciless and ruthless enemy? Harrowing and beautifully written, Code Name Verity is the story of an unforgettable friendship forged in the face of the ultimate evil.
Reviews (7)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Wein's award-winning novel (Hyperion, 2012) is a brilliant story of two young women during World War II who are brought together to support the British RAF. Though from opposite stations in life, Maddie and Queenie (Verity) are both brash, confident, and beautiful, and their friendship is heartfelt. The story unfolds gracefully through written confessions of one of the women who was captured by Nazis after their plane went down in France. The friends are separated after this tragedy, and they (and listeners) are left to wonder if both of them have survived. The prisoner's testimony is crafted to confess the truth, while misleading her Nazi interrogators. At times details about airplanes, mechanics, incendiaries, and such leave listeners feeling woefully inadequate. Graphic accounts of torture and death are put forth in explicit detail. Wein is a master at recounting both horrible events and the emotional subtleties which define the lives of these two heroines. Narration by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell is superb, especially with Scottish, British, French, German, and English so beautifully spoken. An excellent choice for thoughtful, mature listeners.-Robin Levin, U.S. Holocaust Museum Teacher/Fellow (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wein (The Empty Kingdom) serves up a riveting and often brutal tale of WWII action and espionage with a powerful friendship at its core. Captured Scottish spy Queenie has agreed to tell her tale-and reveal any confidential information she knows-in exchange for relief from being tortured by Nazis. Her story, which alternates between her early friendship with a pilot named Maddie and her recent sufferings in prison, works both as a story of cross-class friendship (from an upper-crust family, Queenie realizes that she would likely never have met Maddie under other circumstances) and as a harrowing spy story (Queenie's captor, von Loewe, is humanized without losing his menace). Queenie's deliberately rambling and unreliable narration keeps the story engaging, and there are enough action sequences and well-delivered twists (including a gut-wrenching climax and late revelations that will have readers returning to reread the first half of the book) to please readers of all stripes. Wein balances the horrors of war against genuine heroics, delivering a well-researched and expertly crafted adventure. Ages 14-up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Weins exceptional -- downright sizzling -- abilities as a writer of historical adventure fiction are spectacularly evident in this taut, captivating story of two young women, spy and pilot, during World War II. Wein gives us the story in two consecutive parts -- the first an account by Queenie (a.k.a. Lady Julia Beaufort-Stuart), a spy captured by the SS during a mission in Nazi-occupied France. Queenie has bargained with Hauptsturmfhrer von Linden to write what she knows about the British war effort in order to postpone her inevitable execution. Sounding like a cross between Swallows and Amazonss Nancy Blackett and Mata Hari, she alternately succumbs to, cheeks, and charms her captors (and readers) as she duly writes her report and, mostly, tells the story of her best friend Maddie, the pilot who dropped her over France, then crashed. Spoiler: unbeknownst to Queenie, Maddie survived the crash; part two is Maddies "accident report" and account of her efforts to save Queenie. Wein gives us multiple doubletakes and surprises as she ratchets up the tension in Maddies story, revealing Queenies joyously clever duplicity and the indefatigable courage of both women. This novel positively soars, in part no doubt because the descriptions of flying derive from Weins own experience as a pilot. But its outstanding in all its features -- its warm, ebullient characterization; its engagement with historical facts; its ingenious plot and dramatic suspense; and its intelligent, vivid writing. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
"How did he know from the start, even before I told him? That I am always willing to play, addicted to the Great Game?" In a nod to Rudyard Kipling's iconic espionage novel, Kim, the principal narrator of Code Name Verity reveals one of her defining characteristics. It is why she is locked in mortal combat with her Nazi interrogator (lightly sketched, but not one-dimensional), and it is what will make readers turn the pages, hoping that Kipling's assertion - "When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before" - will not apply here. Aimed at a teen/crossover audience, this second world war adventure celebrates two relatively unusual wartime occupations for women: pilot and spy. It also celebrates a friendship that crosses a social divide, made possible by the outbreak of war. Maddie, the pilot, is the granddaughter of an immigrant tradesman from Stockport. Queenie, the spy, is debutante material: Swiss finishing school, Oxford, castle in Scotland, etc. "We are a sensational team," writes Queenie. Maddie manages to drop her friend in occupied France, whereupon she is immediately spotted by a German agent. At the opening of the novel, Queenie is incarcerated in Gestapo HQ, and has been repeatedly tortured. Two thirds of the novel is Queenie's marvellous first-person account-cum-confession, in which she barters information in return for clothes - and time. "I know I am a coward," she tells her captor, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden. "And I'm going to give you anything you ask . . ." Except that, in this game, nothing is as it seems. As a spy, she is automatically a Nacht und Nebel (night and fog) prisoner; in other words, once the Gestapo have finished with her she'll disappear without trace. In between interrogations, Queenie produces a strangely compelling hybrid narrative. She is a reliably unreliable narrator, who camouflages the facts while satisfying the demands of Von Linden. At the same time, she manages to recount the history of her friendship with Maddie and, in passing, gives us an overview of the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) as well as insights into undercover tactics during Britain's struggle against the Third Reich. The novel is steeped in period detail: RAF slang, rationing, the joy of eating a fresh egg ("the bright yolk [. . .] was like the first daffodil in the snow"). Elizabeth Wein is a pilot herself, and one senses her own passion for flying as Queenie describes the thrill of navigating by the scars of old Roman roads, or evokes the beauty of flying through a still summer evening, golden light pouring over the English landscape. If character is attitude, then Queenie is a fine example. The girl has swagger and pluck. She is foul-mouthed, clever and, even in extremis, jokingly defiant. Terrified of being made to drink kerosene, she laughs as she tells us how they brought some into her room, only to use it to kill nits. And rather than being cowed by her female guard, she sends her up mercilessly ("I don't think I've met ANYONE with so much wasted talent"). It has been a while since I was so captivated by a character in YA fiction, and Queenie more than compensates for any minor quibbles about structure. Code Name Verity is one of those rare things: an exciting - and affecting - female adventure story. Linda Buckley-Archer's Time Quake trilogy is published by Simon & Schuster. To order Code Name Verity for pounds 6.39 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop - Linda Buckley-Archer "How did he know from the start, even before I told him? That I am always willing to play, addicted to the Great Game?" In a nod to Rudyard Kipling's iconic espionage novel, Kim, the principal narrator of Code Name Verity reveals one of her defining characteristics. It is why she is locked in mortal combat with her Nazi interrogator (lightly sketched, but not one-dimensional), and it is what will make readers turn the pages, hoping that Kipling's assertion - "When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before" - will not apply here. Two thirds of the novel is [Queenie]'s marvellous first-person account-cum-confession, in which she barters information in return for clothes - and time. "I know I am a coward," she tells her captor, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden. "And I'm going to give you anything you ask . . ." Except that, in this game, nothing is as it seems. - Linda Buckley-Archer.
Kirkus Review
Breaking away from Arthurian legends (The Winter Prince, 1993, etc.), Wein delivers a heartbreaking tale of friendship during World War II. In a cell in Nazi-occupied France, a young woman writes. Like Scheherezade, to whom she is compared by the SS officer in charge of her case, she dribbles out information--"everything I can remember about the British War Effort"--in exchange for time and a reprieve from torture. But her story is more than a listing of wireless codes or aircraft types. Instead, she describes her friendship with Maddie, the pilot who flew them to France, as well as the real details of the British War Effort: the breaking down of class barriers, the opportunities, the fears and victories not only of war but of daily life. She also describes, almost casually, her unbearable current situation and the SS officer who holds her life in his hands and his beleaguered female associate, who translates the narrative each day. Through the layers of story, characters (including the Nazis) spring to life. And as the epigraph makes clear, there is more to this tale than is immediately apparent. The twists will lead readers to finish the last page and turn back to the beginning to see how the pieces slot perfectly, unexpectedly into place. A carefully researched, precisely written tour de force; unforgettable and wrenching. (Historical fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* If you pick up this book, it will be some time before you put your dog-eared, tear-stained copy back down. Wein succeeds on three fronts: historical verisimilitude, gut-wrenching mystery, and a first-person voice of such confidence and flair that the protagonist might become a classic character if only we knew what to call her. Alternately dubbed Queenie, Eva, Katharina, Verity, or Julie depending on which double-agent operation she's involved in, she pens her tale as a confession while strapped to a chair and recovering from the latest round of Gestapo torture. The Nazis want the codes that Julie memorized as a wireless operator before crash-landing in France, and she supplies them, but along the way also tells of her fierce friendship with Maddie, a British pilot whose quiet gumption was every bit as impressive as Julie's brash fearlessness. Though delivered at knifepoint, Julie's narrative is peppered with dark humor and minor acts of defiance, and the tension that builds up between both past and present story lines is practically unbearable. A surprise change of perspective hammers home the devastating final third of the book, which reveals that Julie was even more courageous than we believed. Both crushingly sad and hugely inspirational, this plausible, unsentimental novel will thoroughly move even the most cynical of readers.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
I'M in a bit of a predicament. Oh, it's not the predicament of a girl pilot who has crash-landed in occupied France during World War II, or of a girl spy who has been captured by the Gestapo, but it's still problematic. I have to review a book in which even the hint of plot summary could ruin everything. "Code Name Verity," by Elizabeth Wein, is a fiendishly plotted mind game of a novel, the kind you have to read twice. The first time you just devour the story of girl-pilot-and-girl-spy friendship and the thrill of flying a plane and the horrors of Nazi torture and the bravery of French Resistance fighters and you force yourself to slow down, but you don't want to, because you're terrified these beautiful, vibrant characters are doomed. The second time, you read more slowly, proving to yourself that yes, the clues were there all along for you to solve the giant puzzle you weren't even aware was constructed around you, and it takes focus and attention to catch all the little references to the fact that nothing is what you thought Especially while you're bawling your eyes out. "I am a coward. I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending." This is how the book opens. Soon we learn our narrator is Queenie, the girl spy. She's Scottish, and she's been caught because she looked the wrong way (left, Britishly) while crossing a French street. She might have talked her way out of trouble - we quickly see she's charming, funny, flirty and has great nails - but for reasons that will become clear, she has no identification papers. She's imprisoned in the Château de Bordeaux, a once elegant hotel in a small city by a river in central France, now serving as a Gestapo headquarters. Captain von Linden, Queenie's captor, forces her to write her confession between bouts of torture carried out by a pale, pinch-mouthed deputy named Anna Engel. For as long as Queenie writes, she will be allowed to stay alive. So Queenie unfurls the story of her friendship with the pilot, Maddie, interspersed with enough information about codes and airports to live for one more day, and another, and another. Commander von Linden, whom she compares to Captain Hook ("in that he is rather an upright sort of gentleman in spite of his being a brute"), is a cultured man who gets wrapped up in Queenie's story. When Fräulein Engel becomes impatient with what she sees as Queenie's pointless literary fancies, von Linden interrupts her. "'Fräulein Engel, you are not a student of literature,' he said. 'The English flight officer has studied the craft of the novel. She is making use of suspense and foreshadowing.' . . . Engel dutifully slapped me into silence and said: 'She is not writing a novel. She is making a report.'" Well, yes and no. Through Queenie's writing - first on creamy hotel stationery, then in increasingly frantic scribbles on prescription forms bearing the name of a Jewish doctor, on sheet music once owned by a Jewish flutist and on recipe cards cadged from the Nazi cook - the reader, too, learns the story of the girls' blossoming friendship. Unlike the aristocratic Queenie, Maddie is a commoner. She's not gorgeous or smooth with men. But she's ethical, fierce and loyal, and we find out as Queenie does that she's a skilled pilot and a genius mechanic. "It's like being in love, discovering your best friend," Queenie writes, and Wein conveys that love gorgeously. "We're still alive and we make a sensational team," Queenie says. And they do. This is a rare young adult novel entirely about female power and female friendship, with only the faintest whiff of cute-boy romance. I'd tell you more about the "Usual Suspects"meets-" If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" plot, but then I'd have to kill you. I do think "Code Name Verity" will appeal more to adults than to teenagers. The cover is unfortunately off-putting (with its stark image of two girls' wrists bound together with twine, it looks like a lesbian version of "Fifty Shades of Grey"); the torture scenes are fairly graphic, and the period detail is dense. I could have done with a little less information about vintage airplanes and ballpoint pens (though an author's note indicates that some bits that seem far-fetched are based in reality). I doubt most teenagers will get the references to "A Thousand and One Nights," Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" and the death of Admiral Hardy, all of which make the book challenging in a lovely, bookish way. (Wein's earlier novels are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth-century Ethiopia. She has a doctorate in folklore and a pilot's license. She met her husband at a dinner dance for hobbyist bell ringers. Nerd.) But every reader will get the "Peter Pan" references, and they're what's most important A smart book about the power of female friendship is like finding Neverland. Marjorie Ingoii is a columnist for Tablet magazine.
