First published 2011
Jennet Conant reveals the hidden chapter of Julia Child's life before she transformed American cooking. At thirty, the six-foot-two California woman had never traveled beyond Tijuana when she joined the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Conant traces Julia's journey from inexperienced recruit to intelligence operative in Ceylon, India, and China, where she helped build America's secret network across Southeast Asia. The author documents Julia's romance with the sophisticated Paul Child, a painter turned war room designer who introduced her to curry and jungle expeditions from their base in Kandy. Their story continues through the chaotic final days of the Chinese war and the Communist revolution, then follows them to postwar Paris. But their intelligence connections later endangered them during the McCarthy era's Red spy hunts. Drawing from newly declassified OSS and FBI files, plus personal letters and diaries, Conant reconstructs how these idealistic Americans served their country in remote outposts, only to face suspicion at home for their wartime associations and political views.
Genres: biography, history, historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii, espionage
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Ceylon, China, India, Kandy, Paris, Tijuana
Period: Communist Revolution, McCarthy Era, World War II
411 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster (NYC)