Book Summary and Reviews of Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

Our Woman in Moscow

by Beatriz Williams

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2021, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The New York Times bestselling author of Her Last Flight returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion.

In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family's sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West's most vital secrets?

Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn't seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.

But the complex truth behind Iris's marriage defies Ruth's understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. At the start of the book, Ruth tells the reader: "What I have done this summer, I have done to repay a debt…to all who came before me and saved me without my knowing it." Who is she speaking of? How does she ultimately repay them?
  2. Ruth tells the reader, "Nothing ever stays the same, does it? The accumulation of age and experience changes us daily. If it doesn't, you'd better worry." Do you agree? How did age and experience change Ruth or Iris or Sasha?
  3. Did Iris make the right decision to stay in Rome and marry Sasha instead of going back to America with her sister? Would you have done the same? Was Ruth truly acting in Iris's best interests when she tried to separate Sasha and Iris or did she have other motives? ...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Williams captivates with the story of an American woman's effort to reunite with her twin sister after her defection to the Soviet Union...Williams sharply observes the inequities women faced at the end of WWII and the simmering suspense of the Cold War. Historical fiction fans will be riveted by the complex family relationships and the intriguing portrayal of espionage." - Publishers Weekly

"The 1948 narrative slows down the present action without really adding much crucial insight...A cumbersome plot weighs down this would-be spy thriller." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Our Woman in Moscow was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Beatriz Williams Author Biography

Beatriz Williams is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of The Golden Hour, The Summer Wives, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Hundred Summers, and several other works of historical fiction, including three novels in collaboration with fellow bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before she turned her attention to writing novels that combine her passion for history with an obsessive devotion to voice and characterization. Beatriz's books have won numerous awards, have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the ...

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Link to Beatriz Williams's Website

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Read-Alikes

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