Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson's foray into the spy genre, Transcription, is another book I picked up in London, leaving me with just two London books to go. It covers some of the same ground that was covered in Life After Life and, especially, A God in Ruins, but with new characters and none of the supernaturalities found in those books. The story jumps back and forth between 1940, when the 18-year-old lead character worked for MI5 as a transcriber and occasional spy, and 1950 when her spying days come back to haunt her. As is often the case in spy novels, you're not always sure who is spying on whom (or if everyone is spying on everyone: at times it seems like the whole cast of characters are employed by MI5 to spy one another). Transcription captures very well the madness and self-doubt that must result from these conditions -- especially when the person experiencing the conditions is young and naive. This wasn't my favorite Kate Atkinson book, but that would be a high bar to hurdle. I did thoroughly enjoy it.