Code Name Verity

When a British spy plane transporting best friends Maddie and Julie crashes in Nazi-occupied France, the two young women are thrown into an increasingly harrowing nightmare that explores the anguish and malevolence of World War II. Captured by Nazis, Julie is forced to reveal the plans of the Allied power. Maddie endeavours to rescue her friend, only to face an utterly wrenching reunion. Through peril, desperation and redemption, Code Name Verity shines a light not only on the evils that human beings are capable of performing, but also on the richness of true friendship. Elizabeth Wein, who has her private pilot’s license, used her passion for aviation and global history to inform her 2012 novel, which she followed with both a sequel in 2013 and a prequel in 2017. —Peter Allen Clark

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