The Book Spy: A WW2 Novel of Librarian Spies


 
 
 
 
 Table of Contents
 
 Praise
 Also by
 Title Page
 
 Copyright Page
 Dedication
 PROLOGUE - WASHINGTON, DC—DECEMBER 22, 1941
 PART 1 - ENLISTMENT
 CHAPTER 1 - NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES—MAY 19, 1942
 CHAPTER 2 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MAY 22, 1942
 CHAPTER 3 - NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES—JUNE 23, 1942
 CHAPTER 4 - NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES—JULY 2, 1942
 CHAPTER 5 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JULY 3, 1942
 CHAPTER 6 - PORTO, PORTUGAL—JULY 4, 1942
 CHAPTER 7 - WASHINGTON, DC—AUGUST 9, 1942
 CHAPTER 8 - WASHINGTON, DC—AUGUST 10, 1942
 PART 2 - MISSION
 CHAPTER 9 - NEW YORK CITY, NY—FEBRUARY 21, 1943
 CHAPTER 10 - HORTA, AZORES—FEBRUARY 22, 1943
 CHAPTER 11 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—FEBRUARY 22, 1943
 CHAPTER 12 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—FEBRUARY 23, 1943
 CHAPTER 13 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—FEBRUARY 23, 1943
 CHAPTER 14 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MARCH 2, 1943
 CHAPTER 15 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MARCH 10, 1943
 CHAPTER 16 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MARCH 17, 1943
 CHAPTER 17 - ESTORIL, PORTUGAL—MAY 10, 1943
 CHAPTER 18 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MAY 11, 1943
 CHAPTER 19 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MAY 11, 1943
 CHAPTER 20 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—MAY 12, 1943
 CHAPTER 21 - ESTORIL, PORTUGAL—MAY 18, 1943
 CHAPTER 22 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 2, 1943
 CHAPTER 23 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 4, 1943
 CHAPTER 24 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 4, 1943
 CHAPTER 25 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 4, 1943
 CHAPTER 26 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 5, 1943
 CHAPTER 27 - ESTORIL, PORTUGAL—JULY 1, 1943
 CHAPTER 28 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JULY 15, 1943
 PART 3 - OPERATION FORTITUDE
 CHAPTER 29 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—DECEMBER 10, 1943
 CHAPTER 30 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JANUARY 7, 1944
 CHAPTER 31 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JANUARY 10, 1944
 CHAPTER 32 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JANUARY 10, 1944
 CHAPTER 33 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JANUARY 11, 1944
 CHAPTER 34 - ESTORIL, PORTUGAL—FEBRUARY 20, 1944
 CHAPTER 35 - PENICHE, PORTUGAL—MARCH 12, 1944
 CHAPTER 36 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 2, 1944
 CHAPTER 37 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 3, 1944
 CHAPTER 38 - PENICHE, PORTUGAL—JUNE 3, 1944
 CHAPTER 39 - SALZBURG, AUSTRIA—JUNE 3, 1944
 CHAPTER 40 - OBERSALZBERG, GERMANY—JUNE 3, 1944
 CHAPTER 41 - PENICHE, PORTUGAL—JUNE 3, 1944
 CHAPTER 42 - SALZBURG, AUSTRIA—JUNE 4, 1944
 CHAPTER 43 - D-DAY—LISBON, PORTUGAL—JUNE 6, 1944
 CHAPTER 44 - D-DAY—PENICHE, PORTUGAL—JUNE 6, 1944
 CHAPTER 45 - ESTORIL, PORTUGAL—JUNE 8, 1944
 CHAPTER 46 - COVILHÃ, PORTUGAL—JUNE 8, 1944
 PART 4 - LIBERATION
 CHAPTER 47 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—AUGUST, 25, 1944
 CHAPTER 48 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—AUGUST 25, 1944
 CHAPTER 49 - PENICHE, PORTUGAL—AUGUST 25, 1944
 CHAPTER 50 - CASCAIS, PORTUGAL—SEPTEMBER 5, 1944
 CHAPTER 51 - LISBON, PORTUGAL—SEPTEMBER 7, 1944
 AUTHOR’S NOTE
 Discussion Questions
 
 
 
 
 Books by Alan Hlad 
 
 THE LONG FLIGHT HOME 
 
 CHURCHILL’S SECRET MESSENGER 
 
 A LIGHT BEYOND THE TRENCHES 
 
 THE BOOK SPY 
 
 
 
 Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. 
 
 
 AUTHOR’S NOTE 
 While conducting research for The Book Spy, I became captivated by the real-life librarians who were recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to serve as intelligence agents. On December 22, 1941—two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—President Roosevelt signed an executive order to create the Interdepartmental Committee for the Acquisition of Foreign Publications (IDC), a force of librarians and microfilm specialists. The IDC was proposed to Roosevelt by Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI), which would soon become the OSS. The objective of the librarian agents was to acquire enemy newspapers, books, and periodicals for American war agencies. They were deployed to neutral European cities, such as Lisbon and Stockholm, to pose as American officials collecting materials for the Library of Congress, which was attempting to preserve books during the world crisis. The agents used local currency and bartered with American magazines, like Time and Life, to order Axis publications through bookstores and secret channels. Once the publications were acquired, the agents microfilmed them—reducing size and weight—and then transported the film to intelligence staff in either the United States or Britain for analysis. 
 Maria’s character in the book was inspired by a real agent named Adele Kibre, who was stationed in Stockholm. Kibre was an expert in microphotography, fluent in seven languages, and was—according to research records—the most accomplished of the IDC agents. During her overseas service, she was able to obtain a copy of a secret directory of German manufacturers called Industrie-Compass 1943. Kibre was intelligent, confident, brave, and intrigued by espionage. Also, she wasn’t afraid to break rules and act independently, which sometimes annoyed her boss, Frederick Kilgour. In the book, I strived to use many of Kibre’s attributes to create Maria’s character. 
 During my research, I was moved by stories of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. During the war, Lisbon, Portugal, was considered the last gate out of Europe. An estimated one million refugees fled there to acquire ship passage to either the United States, Canada, or Latin America. I discovered varying accounts as to how many of the refugees were Jewish, which ranged from sixty thousand to hundreds of thousands. Also, there were many refugees who secretly fled to Portugal without proper passports and visas. Some of the refugees, fearing they’d be sent back to where they came from by the Portuguese secret police, sought the aid of underground networks to obtain travel papers. In the book, I imagined Tiago and Rosa to be the masterminds of a secret channel to forge documents for freedom seekers. It is my hope that this story will commemorate the refugees who fled German-occupied Europe. 
 During World War II, neutral Lisbon was a city of espionage. The hotels, most notably Hotel Palácio and Hotel Atlântico near Casino Estoril, were crawling with Allied and Axis spies. Informants were everywhere, and the city was swirling with rumors and counter-rumors. Maria’s role as a spy was inspired by a real double agent named Juan Pujol Garcia, code-named Garbo by the British and Alaric by the Germans. He was a Spanish spy who moved to Lisbon and acted as a double agent loyal to Great Britain against Germany. He