Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott is set in 1956, when Boris Pasternak is writing Doctor Zhivago, and there's controversy surrounding it.  Soviet Russia could ban it, but the USA is interested in getting it's hands on it.

We meet two women - Sally, an experienced agent for the CIA, and Irina, a new hire for the typing section, and how they are involved in this book.

There are spies, international travel, horrible tactics by those in power, and love.  I enjoyed the story, and was interested in the setting and the events!

The Secrets We Kept was published on 5th September 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Lara Prescott on Twitter and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin Random House.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

A fascinating layer cake : Dr Zhivago, the Cold War, secretive society, East and West

I was absorbed, first to last by this. The story of the writing and the publication of Boris Pasternak’s book itself, and its role within the Cold War, was not previously known to me, though I knew the book, and, more, the film.

In the late 50’s the Soviet Union was definitely ahead in the Space Race. The Cold War was definitely in place, and America was looking at all kinds of ‘weapons’ – one of which was cultural superiority, and the idea of disseminating books written in the West, which were critical of the East – think 1984, think Animal Farm. But also, think books written from within Russia itself, which were deemed critical against the state. Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago was one such, unpublished in the USSR. Pasternak was almost on a state enemy list, but he was a favourite of Stalin’s, with his poetry. The book of course is also a love story – and Lara, the central female character was modelled on Pasternak’s lover.

Part of the story story of those kept secrets are the secrets kept between Pasternak, other dissidents, and Olga Vsevolodovna, Pasternak’s ‘Muse’

But there are other secrets. A group of typists, highly educated graduates, working in the CIA typing pool. All supremely overqualified, all shamefully kept from realising their professional potential. Women picking up the scraps of knowledge of State Secrets. Within the pool (almost like a Greek tragedy chorus, this Secret Keeping We) are a couple of other women. One of them, Sally Forrester, is anyway not one of the typists, and appears to be much higher in the pecking order, even somewhat respected by some of the male bosses. The other is Irina, who is the daughter of a Russian immigrant. She is not a particularly fast typist, and it is clear there were other reasons for her recruitment into the typing pool

It becomes clear over the course of over 12 year period covered in the book, from 1949 to 1961 that it is not only the Soviet Bloc which abhors dissidents. This was, after all, also the period of McCarthyism, and toeing the line of capitalism, nuclear family values, where women’s highest achievements were in the end supposed to be marriage and motherhood was expected.

This is a wonderful, absorbing, well-written book. The split focus structure, between West and East works really well. Two superpowers, parallel lines, believing they are worlds apart from each other.

The author was of course named for the heroine of Pasternak’s book, so of course, exploring this story must have felt inevitable.

Intrigue, espionage, and Russian propaganda...or is it? I really enjoyed this book. The setting and background is vivid and honest. The descriptive and delightful portrayal of the young sharp witted women of the secretarial pool immediately transports the reader to the late 1940's - early 1950's. In contrast the stark reality of Olga's arrest and subsequent internment in a Russian concentration camp is eye openingly honest and evocative. Both are cruel reminders of just how cruel politics in both society and the workplace can be.
This is not so much a spy story as a story about women 'becoming', both stronger and true. It is not as much about Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago as it is about two governments, their power play and propaganda. The book leads you on a journey of growth and awareness, highlighting the women who tell their stories of self-truth. I truly enjoyed this book. 4.5 stars.

Really solid cold war thriller... I enjoyed the strands of the story coming together and felt the pace was good throughout.

I am in charge of the senior library and work with a group of Reading Ambassadors from 16-18 to ensure that our boarding school library is modernised and meets the need of both our senior students and staff. It has been great to have the chance to talk about these books with our seniors and discuss what they want and need on their shelves. I was drawn to his book because I thought it would be something different from the usual school library fare and draw the students in with a tempting storyline and lots to discuss.
This book was a really enjoyable read with strong characters and a real sense of time and place. I enjoyed the ways that it maintained a cracking pace that kept me turning its pages and ensured that I had much to discuss with them after finishing. It was not only a lively and enjoyable novel but had lots of contemporary themes for our book group to pick up and spend hours discussing too.
I think it's important to choose books that interest as well as challenge our students and I can see this book being very popular with students and staff alike; this will be an excellent purchase as it has everything that we look for in a great read - a tempting premise, fantastic characters and a plot that keeps you gripped until you close its final page.

I'm sorry, I just didn't enjoy this book. Really struggled to get in to the plot, couldn't relate to the chatacters and despite multiple attempts couldn't finish it.

The Secrets We Kept follows the true story of the publication of Doctor Zhivago. Banned by the Russian government for being too subversive, the novel was published in Europe and smuggled back into Russia by the CIA, seeking to gain a toehold on their opponent during the Cold War.

So sets the scene for a fascinating story of espionage, national oneupmanship, love stories and the power of books. Set in the 1950s in America and Russia, and told from multiple female perspectives of women working for the CIA in the early post-war days, The Secrets We Kept is an intricately woven historical novel that kept me reading late into the night.

Thanks to the publisher for an early copy.

‘The Secrets We Kept’ by Lara Prescott is a mixture of Cold War thriller, romance and the true story of the publication of ‘Dr Zhivago’ by Boris Pasternak. Set in the 1950s, this novel is about the power of the written word. So powerful that two nations try to outwit the other as a big new novel is set to be published; neither has any regard for the effects of their plans on the author.
The two worlds are radically different, Prescott builds both convincingly. I can see Pasternak’s vegetable garden at his dacha, I can hear the typewriters in the Typing Pool at The Agency on National Mall in Washington DC. It is important to note that this is a blend of real events, real people and total fiction.
Irina is American, a first generation Russian-American, her father left behind in the Soviet Union as his pregnant wife departed for a new life in America. Irina’s Mama is a dressmaker, speaking Russian to Irina at home while making elaborate dresses for Russian immigrants. Irina never meets her father. Always an outsider, when she goes for a job interview in a typing pool Marla wears a skirt made for her by Mama. She gets the job in the Typing Pool at The Agency (the CIA) because she has something different to offer; she is trained for extra duties in the evening, acting as a messenger and learning tradecraft to avoid detection. Her job is at The Agency’s Soviet Russia Division, the ‘SR’.
In Moscow, Boris Pasternak is writing a novel and reading it aloud to his lover, Olga. One day Pasternak, deemed a threat by the authorities, is sent a warning: Olga is sent to a work camp for three years. When she returns home, his novel is finished. It is ‘Dr Zhivago’.
‘The Secrets We Kept’ is a fascinating read, a glimpse into the true story of ‘Dr Zhivago’s publication and the role of the CIA in disseminating it to Soviet citizens. Structurally the pace did not hold up and slowed each time the story moved to Boris and Olga. But some interesting areas are covered - the treatment of homosexuals in the workplace and sexual manipulation between the ranks, the assimilation of first generation Americans, and the American obsession with communism.
Set at the time of Sputnik, Prescott is good at the contemporary culture, politics and the atmosphere of rivalry and impending threat of the Soviet Union. The clothes, the food, the films, the parties. The typists see and hear but don’t repeat, but are as capable of analysing and doing the jobs that the men are doing.
The ending fizzled out, perhaps because the book tries to do so much, possibly too much.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I enjoyed this book so much.
It was so rich in Historical events that I found myself looking for things in Google and learning more about it.

The Dr. Zhivago novel and movie and even though I haven't read it or watched it, I am now intrigued and will be looking to it.

I enjoyed the different points of view of the different characters.

Not my favourite story- I loved the approach and the idea of falling into a world of female spies but although I finished the book it was begrudgingly and with sheer determination. The characters felt flat and the writing style didn’t carry you through, it was more like wading through mud.

So much fuss about a book....

The book in question is Doctor Zhivago. Banned by the Russians afraid of its subversive power, it's the ideal weapon for the Americans to use to tip the balance of the Cold War.

And so the mission is, on the face of it, very simple: smuggle it back into the Soviet Union. And the agents charged with this are two typists

For the highly educated women working in the department the typing pool was the only opportunity they’d get to use their skills and intelligence but for the lucky few there was more. Irina was one of the lucky ones, groomed as a carrier she was included in a mission to send a novel behind the Iron Curtain. The novel was ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and it was banned in Russia due to seditious content. As Pasternak’s lover and muse Olga had suffered for her love, sent to the Gulags for three years she still returned to Pasternak on her release even though she knew that ‘Doctor Zhivago’ could cause major problems.
This is the story of women on each side of the Iron Curtain in the late 1950s, all of them suppressed because of their sex but with the intelligence and independence to try to fight it. I loved this book because it told a powerful story of women in their many guises and the way that women work together to change the world. The only slight negative for me was the love story between Irina and Sally, it felt one step too far and muddying a clear narrative although it provide the plot incentive for Sally’s subsequent actions, however that it to caste a small aspersion on a great book. It is period perfect with clever detailing both of life in Moscow and the dachas but also in Washington. Prescott writes clear and neat prose and the story skips along despite jumping from country to country. Pasternak himself is almost and aside and yet his writing is central to the entire story – this is sophisticated and mature plotting.

NB Review copy through Lovereading

The Secrets We Kept turned out to be not quite the story I imagined. Although a slow read through quite a tome, there were some fascinating elements. I never realised that Doctor Zhivago was used to gently destabilise the communist hold on Russia, although I can see the logic. Aspects of tradecraft which although fascinating, caused me to wonder whether they were strictly necessary bearing in mind what and where they were passing ‘secrets’. The life laid bare in the typing pool was very well described and humiliating for women who had served their country so bravely but a few years before. An insightful and instructive work.

I really wanted to love this book but hard as I tried it just wasn’t possible. It felt as though there were a number of stories running side by side. I kept thinking that the stories would overlap but sadly they didn’t. I finished the book but was disappointed unfortunately.

This might not be the straight-forward spy novel some readers expect but the tale of female CIA-spies in the 1950ies and 60ies is captivating and the charcaters are engaging and convincing. And as a bonus: the story of Boris Pasternak and his most famous novel, Doktor Zhivago. I loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley, and to publisher for an advance ARC in return for an honest review.

I have more than a passing interest in 20th Century Russian history the fact that this is about how the CIA got Dr Zhivago published in the west was right up my street.

The story is more than just Dr Zhivago though, it’s about the role of women in the CIA in the 1950, and the exclusion of the LGBT community. Really this is two stories set in the West and East and interconnected by Dr Zhivago (a book I have never read).

In Russia we follow the authors and his writing of the novel, and his oppression by the State after the novel’s publication in the East. I don’t know if it was the writing, but I really did not like the author finding him far too much a narcissist for my liking. I really felt that if I had been his wife, or his mistress, I would have walked from him years ago.

In America we follow the CIA, and in particular the woman who worked for them both in the typing pool and as spies.

The only reason this novel gets 4 stars and not 5 is that it seemed to fizzle out at the end. Definitely recommend though, and I found myself downloading Dr Zhivago

My thanks to Random House U.K. Cornerstone/Hutchinson for an eARC via NetGalley of Lara Prescott’s ‘The Secrets We Kept’ in exchange for an honest review. It was published on 5th September 2019. My apologies for the late review.

As its audiobook edition was available I elected to buy it and listen alongside reading the ebook. It was read by seven narrators, each taking one of the narrative viewpoints within the novel.

Set during the Cold War this work of historical fiction tells the story of the writing of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ by Boris Pasternak and how after being prohibited from publication in Russia its manuscript was smuggled to Italy. Later it became a weapon of propaganda used by the C.I.A..

The author moves between the East and West and utilises a number of narrative voices to tell the story; including those of Pasternak’s muse and mistress, Olga Ivlinskaya, and a number of women working at the Agency, some as typists and others as active agents involved in the operation.

While I knew that ‘Doctor Zhivago’ had been banned in Russia for many years, I wasn’t aware of the involvement of the C.I.A. in its publication and distribution including smuggling copies into Russia as agitprop.

The operation was classified and only came to light after the C.I.A. was badgered into releasing documentation that resulted in the 2014 ‘The Zhivago Affair’ by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée. Prescott wrote in her Author’s Note: “it was seeing the declassified documents—with their blacked-out and redacted names and details—that first inspired me to want to fill in the blanks with fiction.”

Prescott also used the novel to address the little known history of the United States’ Cold War persecution of LGBTQ people.

I found this a highly engaging novel and felt that Prescott did an excellent job of combining fact and fiction to highlight this fascinating chapter of Cold War history.

A very impressive debut novel.

Don't worry if you haven't read Doctor Zhivago, but I bet you will when you read this.

This is the story of Pasternak finishing the novel, it being banned in the Soviet Union and the CIA trying to destabilise the communist regime by distributing the book, but....

It's really character studies of three women who are critical to the books completion and 're-distribution' - all great character studies that jump off the page.

You will be willing them to be happy / succeed as the book progresses.

Overall, it gives a deeper, more personal insight into the 1950's Cold War both in the US and in Russia.

Highly recommended!