The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott

NOTE: My book groups are not able to meet this month, March 2020, due to COVID-19.  We have plans to read and discuss Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak as a natural follow-up to this book.  Enjoy!

East

West

Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya (Olya) – incarcerated 3 years, after that became Pasternak’s business emissary Ira – daughter Mitya – son Mother Boris Pasternak (Borya) 1958 – Awarded the Nobel Prize, forced to turn it down 1989 – Re-awarded Nobel Prize Zinaida - wife Lubyanka: Anatoli Sergeyevich Semionov – Olga’s guard Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – Italian publisher Sergio D’Angelo – Italian literary agent

Irina Drozdova Mother – seamstress Father – arrested, died in Gulag The Typists: Betty – former OSS Virginia – former OSS Gail Carter – engineering degree, black Kathy Norma Kelly – married Teddy, wrote spy novel Soviet Russian Division (SR):        Walter Anderson – oversaw typing pool, former OSS        Frank Wisner -founded agency’s clandestine ops,        Sally Forrester – The Swallow, became Lenore Miller in 1958 after dismissed from SR        Teddy Helm – trainer, went to England to get book in original Russian        Henry Rennet – ruined Sally’s reputation, Sally had him killed

For Discussion:

Note: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       The author wrote that many people involve in intelligence came to work at the Agency because, for one reason, they missed “the power that came from being a keeper of secrets” (page 59).   Can you understand this?  How do you feel when you are entrusted with a secret?

2.       Discuss the character of Irina.  Why did she have trouble fitting into the typing pool?  Irina wondered if her “feeling of being a constant outsider, of being more comfortable alone” was picked up by the group (page 117).

3.       Were you surprised that Irina liked her new role as a carrier as much as she did?  She thought that “For the first time in my life, I felt as if I had a greater purpose, not just a job” (page 116).   Could you do that type of work?

4.       What did you think about the subplot of the relationship between Sally and Irina?  Did it add to the novel?  Did you like the ending?

5.       At the end of the novel, Norma published a book about a “female agent provocateur who took down a double” and the Agency “distanc[ed] itself from novel’s content” (page 343).  Do you think this was a true story about Sally?  If so, how did Norma know this information?  Would Teddy have told her the story?

6.       Discuss the character of Henry:

a.       In Chapter 15, why did Henry attack Sally?  Did the people in the Agency really not care about her?

b.       Who were the people at Sara’s Dry Cleaning in Washington, DC?  What happened to Henry after Sally gave them his name?

c.       Was he really a double agent?

7.       Discuss the novel, Dr. Zhivago:

a.       When Sally finally read the book in 1958, she thought that it was not a weapon, but a love story (page 302). 

b.       The Agency thought is was a weapon.  They valued it because of the “critiques of the October Revolution and its so-called subversive nature” (page 131).

c.       What do you think after reading The Secrets We Kept?

8.       Discuss the power of books in general:

a.       The Agency saw “books as weapons” and thought that “literature could change the course of history” (page 130).  Do you agree?

b.       Have you read any books you thought could have changed the world?  That changed you?

9.       How did you like the organization of the book?  Did it take you a while to determine that chapters were narrated by different people?  Did you like the way the author crossed our previous identities and added new ones?

10.   Did this book influence you to want to read Dr. Zhivago?  (I hope so!!!)