Hannah's War

By: Jan Eliasberg

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A "mesmerizing" re-imagination of the final months of World War II (Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network), Hannah's War is an unforgettable love story about an exceptional woman and the dangerous power of her greatest discovery.

Berlin, 1938. Groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She understands that the energy released by her discovery can power entire cities or destroy them. Hannah believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked, and eventually stolen by her German colleagues. Faced with an impossible choice, Hannah must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of science's greatest achievement.

New Mexico, 1945. Returning wounded and battered from the liberation of Paris, Major Jack Delaney arrives in the New Mexican desert with a mission: to catch a spy. Someone in the top-secret nuclear lab at Los Alamos has been leaking encoded equations to Hitler's scientists. Chief among Jack's suspects is the brilliant and mysterious Hannah Weiss, an exiled physicist lending her talent to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mission. All signs point to Hannah as the traitor, but over three days of interrogation that separate her lies from the truth, Jack will realize they have more in common than either one bargained for.

Hannah's War is a thrilling wartime story of loyalty, truth, and the unforeseeable fallout of a single choice.

©2020 Jan Eliasberg (P)2020 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

"Jan Eliasberg knows how to open big with strong suspense and wry humor and take us for a hurtling ride through one of America's most complex moments. The wonderful characters of Hannah's War bring together a moving love story, a high-stakes mystery and a fascinating look into the moral compass of an exceptional woman." (Amy Bloom, author of White Houses)

"Hannah's War is a gripping cat-and-mouse tale of love, war, deception, and espionage you won't be able to put down. Jan Eliasberg elevates the spy thriller with her clear, fierce admiration for the women of the past who refused to be edged out of the world of scientific discovery. Mesmerizing." (Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network)

"At the center of this novel you will find love and physics entangled together in the life of a heroic woman whose bravery and brilliance helped to change the course of modern history. Jan Eliasberg's extraordinary novel is a fictionalized version of what really happened, and despite its serious subject matter, the story moves forward with great speed and power, giving off both heat and light. This is a great story about a woman of genius." (Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love)

Great read

Loved the dialogue between characters. A little hard to follow story at times going back & forth in time, but loved the story

Great Narrator and Book

Wow! Could not stop listening to this story! Very cool twist. I really enjoyed the narrator. She brought Hannah to life.

Wonderful

One of the most beautifully written and performed books of which I’ve ever listened. Amazing narration.

Outstanding and Meaninful

Well written story and very meaningful. The story did drag a bit in parts. Ending was very cool and great summary. Orlagh Cassidy has a fantastic voice. She is the only narrator that should have been considered for this book. Great sincerity in her narration.

Amazing book of love suspense and history related

Great book and great reading combining snippets of the Manhattan Project the rise of Nazi Germany and the complex emotions of the scientist working on the atomic bomb. Touching enjoyable and educational. Five full stars.

Hannah's war

loved this book, written with love an insight, even if it was a book of fiction, recommend highly.

A must listen!

I read Hannah's War and was wowed by the book when it was first released, so when it popped up as an Audible book of the day I grabbed it.

A novel interlaced with historical facts and figures, it is based on the story of a real person, a Jewish Austrian woman who worked at the Keiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin as Hitler rose to power, and who never received due credit for her role in the discovery of nuclear fission. Part history, part spy story with a soupçon of romance, it is as gripping as it is fascinating.

Even if you have already read Hannah's War, do yourself a favor and listen to it as well. The sensory experience of hearing the story is vastly different than reading Eliasberg's superb writing. Her turning of phrases, her vocabulary, her incredible ability to set a mood are all enhanced by Orlagh Cassidy's equally superb narration. Even though I knew the ending, I dissolved into tears of emotion at the power and implications of the Manhattan Project as invoked by Eliasberg.

in all ways. Fantastic

A beautiful pathos. Tragic Hopeful ultimately Uplifting. A lesson in love lived in ruins. Love garnished by compromise.

What a great listen

This is a very well written novel.
The narrator is fantastic. Every character, and there are many, is brought to life with there own distinct voice.
The horror of World War Two is presented in a new and unusual way.
This book is one great listen.
Thanks to you all.

Hannah's Anti-War

Very well written, full of fascinating historical facts. Beautiful and subtle condemnation of modern war.