Enigma FROM OUR EDITORS
From the author of Fatherland comes an extraordinary World War II thriller about the desperate Allied attempts to crack the Germans' secret code. Historically accurate and suspensefully written, here is entertainment of the first order.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
There were two great top secret Allied endeavors during World War II: the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb in New Mexico, and the program at Bletchley Park, a rural town in Britain, where the finest mathematicians and cryptographers attempted to break the Nazis' unbreakable Enigma code. Winning the war depended on the success of both.
In Enigma, Robert Harris, the best-selling author of Fatherland, transports us to March 1943 and the desperate race against time that was waged at Bletchley. His hero, Tom Jericho, has been called back, while recuperating from a nervous breakdown, to try to crack Enigma before German U-boats sink hundreds more American convoys bringing supplies and munitions to Europe. If he solves the puzzle, thousands of Allied troops will live. If not, Jericho and his peers face the responsibility for a massacre. When Jericho's ex-girlfriend turns up missing and is suspected of being a Nazi mole, British and U.S. intelligence take frightening steps to plug the possible leak. Everyone is a suspect, including Jericho, who must use his genius -- and his heart -- to clear both his and his lover's names.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Set during WWII, Harris's latest thriller concerns the British attempt to crack the Nazis' secret codes.
Library Journal
Enigma was the name for an enciphering machine developed in the 1920s and later used by the Nazi military. If numbers and ciphers puzzle you, do not despair. Harris (Fatherland, LJ 4/1/92) effectively evokes the damp bleakness, the deprivation, and the anxiety of war-torn 1940s England. The hero of his novel, Tom, is a delicate, slightly effete young man but a mathematical genius. As the story opens, Tom has had a mental and physical breakdown from too many hours working at code breaking and not enough eating and sleeping. He is recuperating at Cambridge when his supervisor arrives to lure him back to the same punishing grind. The Enigma Codes have changed, and the good guys cannot find the deciphering key in time to save an extra-large convoy coming from America. There is love, a spy in their midst, and a few other red herrings to round out the mix. Definitely recommended.
-- Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills Public Library, Texas
Library Journal
Enigma was the name for an enciphering machine developed in the 1920s and later used by the Nazi military. If numbers and ciphers puzzle you, do not despair. Harris (Fatherland, LJ 4/1/92) effectively evokes the damp bleakness, the deprivation, and the anxiety of war-torn 1940s England. The hero of his novel, Tom, is a delicate, slightly effete young man but a mathematical genius. As the story opens, Tom has had a mental and physical breakdown from too many hours working at code breaking and not enough eating and sleeping. He is recuperating at Cambridge when his supervisor arrives to lure him back to the same punishing grind. The Enigma Codes have changed, and the good guys cannot find the deciphering key in time to save an extra-large convoy coming from America. There is love, a spy in their midst, and a few other red herrings to round out the mix. Definitely recommended.
-- Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills Public Library, Texas
School Library Journal
In 1943, a group of Britain's finest mathematicians and cryptologists gathered secretly in pastoral Bletchley Park with the sole aim of decoding the incomprehensible German cipher, Enigma. Its use had confounded both British and American intelligence, because new, highly classified mechanical improvements within the cipher machine made it superior to any Allied instruments. Enter Tom Jericho, master cryptologist and code-breaker, recently recalled from a nervous breakdown and fractured romantic relationship, to troubleshoot British efforts to crack the code. In this tightly crafted story based on actual events, Harris succeeds in engaging readers by realistically portraying the environment of intrigue existing in wartime England. Jericho is a meek and sympathetic anti-hero, stinging from an unrequited relationship, still hopeful of reconciliation, who reluctantly realizes the possibility of his lover's betrayal of classified information. This novel's singular strength is Harris's ability to take a technologically complex concept and make it lucid and riveting reading. The plot moves apace, and the ending has an unexpected twist. World War II buffs will enjoy this challenging and satisfying tale.
-- Carol Beall, Immanuel Christian School, Springfield, VA
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