Shortlisted for the Bookmark Book Festival's Book of the Year Award 2020
You'd know if you were a spy. Wouldn't you?
Rebellious Martha escapes bleak 1970s England for a fresh start in Moscow. She falls in love with the city but ignores the rules of being a diplomat's wife, where every move is monitored and one mistake can cost everything.
'A fascinating account of life in Soviet Russia... There are few traces of the conventional spy-fic plot, but it's the tiny details seen from the young heroine's point of view that impress.' -The Sunday Times Crime Club
'Sarah Armstrong has delivered a mesmerising, evocative novel in which characterisation and narrative tension are in perfect balance.' -Barry Forshaw
