Hannahs War, Jan Eliasberg
Hannahs War, Jan Eliasberg
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Hannah's War

Author: Jan Eliasberg

Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy

Unabridged: 7 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2020


Synopsis

A "mesmerizing" re-imagination of the final months of World War II (Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network), Hannah's War is an unforgettable love story about an exceptional woman and the dangerous power of her greatest discovery.
Berlin, 1938. Groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She understands that the energy released by her discovery can power entire cities or destroy them. Hannah believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked, and eventually stolen by her German colleagues. Faced with an impossible choice, Hannah must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of science's greatest achievement.
New Mexico, 1945. Returning wounded and battered from the liberation of Paris, Major Jack Delaney arrives in the New Mexican desert with a mission: to catch a spy. Someone in the top-secret nuclear lab at Los Alamos has been leaking encoded equations to Hitler's scientists. Chief among Jack's suspects is the brilliant and mysterious Hannah Weiss, an exiled physicist lending her talent to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mission. All signs point to Hannah as the traitor, but over three days of interrogation that separate her lies from the truth, Jack will realize they have more in common than either one bargained for.
Hannah's War is a thrilling wartime story of loyalty, truth, and the unforeseeable fallout of a single choice.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie on January 24, 2020

Even though this historical fiction book is more imaginative than fact based, I still thought it was a worthwhile read. The story revolved around the making of the atomic bomb and essentially which country's scientists were going to be the first ones to successfully pull it off. It was a fascinating......more

Goodreads review by Kate on July 12, 2019

Read this one for a cover quote, and loved it. My quote: HANNAH'S WAR is a gripping cat-and-mouse tale of love, war, deception, and espionage you won't be able to put down. As Hitler's star rises in Germany, brilliant physicist Hannah Weiss is on the cusp of cracking critical atomic secrets, but a J......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on May 15, 2020

As a female Jewish scientist under the Third Reich, Dr. Hannah Weiss struggled personally and professionally with her ideas belittled, stolen, and twisted. On the verge of a major breakthrough in atomic physics, in 1938 she was driven out of Berlin as she became increasingly aware of the true natur......more

Goodreads review by Rama on April 09, 2020

When Smiles Fade This is a fictionalized story of Austrian physicist Lise Meitner who discovered nuclear fission that paved the way for power generators using nuclear fuels. Part of the story is actual, and the rest is created by the author. Hannah Weiss was a professionally battered woman who was t......more

Goodreads review by Zoe on February 27, 2020

Fascinating, pacey, and engaging! Hannah’s War is an intriguing story that sweeps you away to Los Alamos, New Mexico in the final days of WWII where a female Jewish physicist is on the cusp of making history in a field dominated by men, the race to develop the first nuclear weapon is well and truly u......more


Quotes

"Jan Eliasberg knows how to open big with strong suspense and wry humor and take us for a hurtling ride through one of America's most complex moments. The wonderful characters of Hannah's War bring together a moving love story, a high-stakes mystery and a fascinating look into the moral compass of an exceptional woman."—Amy Bloom, author of White Houses

"Eliasberg moves effortlessly between Hannah's past and present to deliver a historical love story full of intrigue and suspense. Hannah's War shines a much-needed light on one of the most influential women in history."—Booklist

"An exhilarating war thriller, Hannah's War moves at breakneck pace between 1930s Berlin and 1940s New Mexico. A paean to Lise Meitner, it is the compelling portrait of a woman who combined a lively scientific curiosity with an impassioned personal ethic."—Historical Novels Review

"Hannah's War is a gripping cat-and-mouse tale of love, war, deception, and espionage you won't be able to put down. Jan Eliasberg elevates the spy thriller with her clear, fierce admiration for the women of the past who refused to be edged out of the world of scientific discovery. Mesmerizing."—Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network

"I flew through Hannah's War, a gripping true story long overdue to be told, of a brilliant woman physicist working to develop the first atomic bomb and the secret she fights to protect."—Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lilac Girls

"At the center of this novel you will find love and physics entangled together in the life of a heroic woman whose bravery and brilliance helped to change the course of modern history. Jan Eliasberg's extraordinary novel is a fictionalized version of what really happened, and despite its serious subject matter, the story moves forward with great speed and power, giving off both heat and light. This is a great story about a woman of genius."—Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love