Hill of Secrets
This extremely absorbing story is set in Los Alamos, New Mexico, when the secret project to develop the atomic bomb was going forward. Christine reluctantly leaves her New York art job to follow her scientist husband to New Mexico. Other major characters include Kurt, a Jewish scientist who escaped persecution in Germany, his wife Sarah, and teenage daughter Gertie; and Jimmy, the army technician who is hired to tutor Gertie in math. Jimmy feels shame from his parents’ attitude, who wish he was off fighting overseas instead of what they see as a cushy job at home, plus Jimmy is conflicted over suppressed sexual feelings for his buddy Owen.
Conditions are primitive in the living quarters in Los Alamos: water is scarce in the desert, and no telephones are allowed as part of the secrecy around the project. Christine is bored, not allowed to discuss her husband’s work with him and lacking a job herself. Robert Oppenheimer gives her permission to borrow his horse, and she rides over to visit Maria Martinez, a potter at nearby San Ildefonso Pueblo. Christine has art world connections back in New York, and arranges to help Maria market her pottery. When Christine and Kurt are cast in an amateur play, they discover a spark of attraction between them. But keeping an affair secret in a closed community is far from easy. A near- tragedy and a real one loom over the characters.
Vromen is skilled in keeping the reader interested even when changing points of view with nearly every chapter. Well-developed, sympathetic characters, and learning about life in a secret government facility made me reluctant to put the book down. The author’s note explains what liberties she took with historical fact, and her extensive bibliography testifies to her research skills. Highly recommended.
