Trapeze

I finished reading Simon Mawer's Trapeze last night.  It could not be more different from Mendel's Dwarf, which I also enjoyed (you wouldn't think that a novel about the origins of genetics could be that compelling, but you'd be wrong).  Trapeze is about Marian Sutro, a young British woman who grew up in French-speaking Geneva, Switzerland.  She is recruited by the World War II equivalent of MI6.  Her mission is to make contact with and try to help a nuclear physicist escape from Nazi-occupied Paris.  The writing is beautiful, carefully researched (yes, I can tell) and Marian is a character whom you understand and root for.  Some less skillful novelist would cheat the ending, but Mawer doesn't.  The story ends just as it must.       

The Sealed Letter

I have read about Emma Donoghue, and Room (which my friend Irene told me is the best novel she's read in years).  But this week, I read The Sealed Letter, an earlier novel about a famous 19th century divorce case in London.   It was fantastic.  She is so good about the dynamics of friendship, how far friends can push each other and impose on each other (or not), and why.  I assume that the fact that she's a playwright keeps the forward motion of the story going, and tells us exactly as much as we need to know about the characters.