Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook (Celia Rees)

This book is set in the aftermath of the Second World War. Edith, an English schoolteacher, is sent to Germany as part of the post-war effort to rebuilt in various domains, hers being education. But Edith is also given other, more underground, tasks. She has to gather information destined to help her friends and the services they work for, to find former nazis. She excels in this mission, although it is difficult for her on a personal basis. She passes her information through cooking recipes, an original method. She and her friends succeed in their search but at which cost! No more said, I don’t want to spoil it for the readers.
This is an extremely well written book, with an excellent plot and amazing characters. It is also very emotional because, apart from coming back on the atrocities committed during the war, it focuses on how people experienced the post war times: telling their story to others and reliving their trauma, trying to rebuild their life, finding a land where they can live after having been displaced from many areas of Germany and many other countries, in particular Eastern Europe. The cookbook and food related code also contribute to telling the story about food shortages in that period, and how people managed to create joy out of the little they had. On the historical side, the book also evokes the famous “ratlines” which many former nazi regime officials used to escape abroad and, in between the lines, the role that other nations such as the US, but also the Church, played in these escapes.
Starting with a cookbook that belonged to her grandmother, and the story of her aunt who went to Germany after the war and might have been a spy, Celia Rees has created a really strong and captivating story, and an opportunity for learning about this part of history. I would definitely recommend this book.