The Pilot’s Wife
In 2018, Gina’s 93-year-old grandmother, Hedy, wants to return to Switzerland from America to correct a 1940s wrong. Is Hedy deluded or driven? Can Gina help her? Should she? What about Gina’s pressing difficulties? This is engaging historical fiction with WWII events reverberating into the 21st century.
An arresting opening and storyline divided among three points of view propel the reader into a historical conundrum. During WWII, the Swiss, since famous for humanitarian efforts on behalf of refugees elsewhere in Europe, defend their neutrality by shooting down warplanes which stray into their airspace and imprisoning their crews, and they pursue ethnic refugees who cross their borders as criminals.
Anderson parallels the 1944 and 2018 stories, revealing and relating clues as they fall in or out of place. Gina’s search is based on a broken watch and her grandmother’s possibly broken memories. Gina’s life is also in pieces, partly due to the recent death of her mother. The clock is ticking for Hedy, even if her husband’s watch isn’t.
Characters decide what others want or need often without asking themselves—let alone the others—what they really want. Secrets abound. The storytelling is marred by detailed stage directions, stereotypical villains, and minor historical errors—such as that thirty missions were required by May 1944, not twenty-five, and nylon parachutes would have been used instead of silk. The pace and risks increase as Hedy and Gina make unexpected connections in Switzerland. Hedy and Gina race against the clock to make up for lost time.
