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Transcription: A Novel
by Atkinson, Kate
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 031617663X
- ISBN 13
- 9780316176637
- Seller
-
Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Little, Brown and Company. Used - Very Good. . . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Reviews
On Oct 25 2018, a reader said:
Transcription is the fourth stand-alone novel by award-winning British author, Kate Atkinson. In 1940, eighteen-year-old Juliet Armstrong finds herself recruited into the Secret Service. Mostly it's fairly boring, typing up reports and transcribing recordings of agents meeting with British Nazi-sympathisers. But then she's given another identity and the work gets more interesting, for a while. After one exciting episode, arrests are made.
But there were some incidents about which Juliet doesn't like to think too much, and when the war ends, she's not sorry to leave it all behind. Five years later, Juliet is working for the BBC producing children's programs when a face from the past appears: the man who posed as the Gestapo contact passes her in the street. What is disconcerting is that he pretends not to know her.
On the heels of this, a somewhat threatening note is delivered, more of her former colleagues from MI5 flit in and out, and she feels sure she is being followed. Frustrated for information from official channels, Juliet decides to become the hunter rather than the prey.
Once again, Atkinson gives the reader a plot that is perfectly plausible, but filled with twists and red herrings. Her depiction of London during the war and in the immediate aftermath has an authentic feel, with the social attitudes portrayed appropriate for the era. Her protagonist is easily believable: Juliet is intelligent but still naïve, although perhaps not quite as innocent as she first seems.
Her descriptive prose is excellent, as always, and Atkinson no doubt delighted in dropping this piece of dialogue in the final pages: "Fisher clapped his hands, as if to signal the end of the entertainment and said, 'Come now, quite enough of exposition and explanation. We're not approaching the end of a novel, Miss Armstrong.'" Another Atkinson masterpiece.
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Details
- Bookseller
- More Than Words Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- WAL-D-4b-001851
- Title
- Transcription: A Novel
- Author
- Atkinson, Kate
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 031617663X
- ISBN 13
- 9780316176637
- Publisher
- Little, Brown and Company
Terms of Sale
More Than Words Inc.
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
More Than Words Inc.
Biblio member since 2016
Waltham, Massachusetts
About More Than Words Inc.
More Than Words empowers youth who are in foster care, court-involved, homeless or out of school to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. MTW believes that when system-involved youth are challenged with authentic and increasing responsibilities in a business setting, and are given high expectations and a culture of support, they can and will address personal barriers to success, create concrete action plans for their lives, and become contributing members of society. More Than Words began as an online bookselling training program for youth in DCF custody in 2004 and opened its vibrant bookstore on Moody St in Waltham in 2005 and added its Starbucks coffee bar in 2008. MTW replicated its model in the South End of Boston in 2011, thereby doubling the number of youth served annually.