Review of The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

****5 stars

I read this book for a book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t what I expected because I seldom read historical fiction and a story about a Russian female sniper during World War II didn’t seem like something that would interest me. Nevertheless, I found it riveting. I found it hard to believe it was based on the true story of a woman named Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko.

Although parts of the book were sad, the story overall was one of hope and persistence. There were also a few amusing scenes, one involving Eleanor Roosevelt and the stitching of a dress for Mila when she came to the United States after being invited to the White House as a heroine with a tally of over three-hundred kills of Hitler’s soldiers.

While the author mentions in her notes that she took a few liberties with the story, she tried to keep to the research she found from Mila’s diaries and other sources. During World War II when Germany invaded Russia, the Soviets recruited both men and women into the army, but few women served on the frontlines. The reason Mila was chosen to do so was because she’d already been trained in shooting and was adept at it. After becoming pregnant at 15 by a man who left her and her son, she was working in a library and writing her thesis when war broke out. Leaving her friends and family, she joined the cause.

The rest of the book is an absorbing read. I kept turning the pages as Mila headed a battalion, was injured several times, and fell in love with a man she couldn’t marry because her husband wouldn’t make their divorce final. As the main narrative unfolds, Mila’s U.S. tour and a danger off the battlefield is introduced.

I highly recommend this read.