SELECTED AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
A SUNDAY TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF 2022

Born and raised in America, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six and living in Germany when she witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. She began holding secret meetings in her apartment, forming a small band of political activists set on helping Jews escape, denouncing Hitler and calling for revolution. When the Second World War began, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies.

In this astonishing work of non-fiction, Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on extensive archival research, fusing elements of biography, political thriller and scholarly detective story to tell a powerful, epic tale of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history.

About the Author

Rebecca Donner is a 2023-2024 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and was recently a Visiting Scholar at Oxford. Her third book is the New York Times bestseller All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, a deeply researched fusion of biography, espionage thriller, and scholarly detective story that won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award, and the Chautauqua Prize. In 2022, Rebecca Donner was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship.

@RRRDonner | rebeccadonner.com

Reviews
Reads like a thriller . . . Written in a pacey, suspenseful present tense, it's biography with a pulse . . . a superb, sure-footed work of historical detection conceived with a powerful intelligence * * Sunday Times * *
Astonishing . . . wilder and more expansive than a standard-issue biography . . . a real-life thriller with a cruel ending * * New York Times * *
A beautifully rich portrait of a very brave woman. While never less than scrupulously researched, this biography explodes the genre of "biography": experimental but achieved, Donner's story reads with the speed of a thriller, the depth of a novel and the urgency of an essay, like some deeply compelling blend of Alan Furst and W.G. Sebald -- JAMES WOOD
Donner questions what motivates someone to risk their life for the sake of their beliefs in a gripping story that reads like a political thriller * * Observer * *
Written in a fizzing present tense, the book in places reads like a spy novel . . . Donner writes in beautiful, crisp prose (like her great-great-aunt, as quotes from Mildred's letters reveal) . . . The result is a work that transports us to a period now slipping from living memory but that contains vital lessons for our own time * * Herald * *
A tour de force of investigation . . . gripping * * Economist * *
A thrilling and inspiring book. It is a treasure trove for lovers of biography, new writing and the history of the Third Reich * * Scotsman * *
A stunning literary achievement. Rebecca Donner forges a new kind of biography - almost novelistic in style and tone, this scholarly work resurrects the courageous life of Mildred Harnack. A relentless sleuth in the archives, Donner has written a page-turner story of espionage, love and betrayal -- KAI BIRD, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
A lively read . . . Mildred Harnack has received proper recognition at last * * Financial Times * *
Pacey . . . an impressive piecing together of fragments . . . a memorial to Mildred Harnack * * Spectator * *


Awards
Winner of PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography 2022 (United States) and National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography 2022 (United States) and The Chautauqua Prize 2022 (United States). Short-listed for Plutarch Award 2022 (United States) and LA Times Book Prize 2021 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781786892218
Author Rebecca Donner
Format Paperback
Page Count 576
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 391g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 35mm