I was first introduced to Joanna Brady, a Key West-based author of historical fiction, several years ago when my book club won copies of her first novel, The Woman at the Light. Though I was a total noob of a reviewer at the time, you can find my thoughts here in the time capsule that was my fourth ever review for this blog. Long story short, it’s a beautiful and unique work of historical fiction that follows a female lighthouse keeper in Key West in the mid-1800’s. It was universally liked by all our book club members, and I highly recommend it.

Here’s what I love about Brady. Her books always have strong women whose real presence in history has been widely overlooked, and the topics are always truly unique, not to mention very well-researched. Night Witch in Berlin follows a decorated pilot who flew for the Soviet Union during WWII under Stalin’s regime. Stalin did basically nothing right, ok? This was his one good decision, and it wasn’t even implemented well. These women were given rickety old bi-planes that were open to the elements, and they flew them at night in frigid Russian winter weather. They would strategically cut their engines in order to make silent surprise attacks on Nazi targets. These were insanely dangerous missions, and these brave women were the first allowed into combat during the war. Lesson learned? You can give a woman the crappiest resources possible and she’ll still get the damn job done. You’re welcome, asshats. They were so feared by the Germans, it earned them the moniker, Nachthexen, or Night Witch. If this is utterly intriguing to you, as it should be, you will find a great article about them on History.com at this link.

Look, I know many readers and lovers of historical fiction have maybe grown a bit weary of WWII. There are some amazing titles, highly important books that celebrate the many heroes, both military and civilian, and that memorialize the dead of the heinous death camps. There are just a lot of them. Have we all read historical fiction about WWII? Undoubtedly. Have we all read WWII fiction about badass women who dropped 23,000 tons of flaming karma on Nazi scum? No… no, we have not. But now we can thanks to Joanna Brady. Plus, this is only sorta-kinda a WWII novel.

The book discusses the war to some degree, but it predominantly takes place following the war with some flashbacks thrown in to provide foundation for the Cold War state of the world that follows on the heels of WWII. The Night Witches have been retired and sent back to lives of feminine unimportance and mediocrity, no longer able to act as pilots. In the novel, we follow a former decorated Night Witch named Kira Voranova as she navigates her new existence in Cold War Berlin, a city torn in two following the bitter conflict. As tensions have arisen between the former allies of the Soviet Union and the United States and Great Britain, Berlin remains a very dangerous place. Kira begins to see the cruelties inflicted upon German women at the hands of Russian soldiers, and she has experiences that bring all her former loyalties to question. Now forced to spy on former allies, she is faced with an important question. Will she remain loyal to the only country she’s ever known and allow herself to become a pawn of Stalin’s cruelty and despotism, or will she take the opportunity to fly away from it all to a future that is made of her own choices? The latter choice, however, would mean a date with the firing squad.

This novel very deftly tackles the complexities of the sociopolitical structure of the world following WWII. The war had opened a chasm that wouldn’t be filled for many years. Someone wins the war, but it’s never the people, especially the women. Readers get a birds-eye view of the events leading up to the building of the Berlin Wall, but most importantly there’s a coming-of-age element to Kira’s story. In flashbacks, we are able to watch the idealistic little girl who dreams of a life in the clouds, and we follow her as the harsh realities of the world slowly etch away her optimism. This book is a beautiful celebration of all those who managed to retain some form of hope in a hopeless world. It’s also a testament to the human ability of looking past forced allegiances to find common ground and empathy for those we’re led to believe are our enemies, going so far as to see the injustices inflicted by our allies on undeserving parties.

Long story short, this is a wonderful and valuable read that will teach you something new. If you’d like to get your hands on this one or her previous novel, visit Joanna Brady’s website at this link to see where you can get copies. It’s worth it.

Published May 20, 2024 by Joanna Brady. ISBN 9798707195891. 395 pages. Paperback.