Anne Blackman ensorcelled me with Blackbird Girls, and I’ve checked constantly for a new book from her, hoping it would be half as good. The Enemy’s Daughter does not disappoint: it’s every bit as heartbreaking, wondrous, and intense as her previous work.
The story is of Margarete, or Marta, a German child whose story begins aboard the doomed Lusitania in Spring of 1915. It would be easy to spoil it for readers, but the quest at the heart of the story is familiar and resonant, and Blankman never falls back on easy answers or hackneyed tropes.
Marta is trying to find her father, last seen in the chaos in Ireland following the sinking; he has survived but is being taken away to England. She follows him to York, thinking he will be held in the camp there, where Germans living in England were taken. He isn’t there, and with her mother in Berlin, Marta is on her own. She is angry and suspicious, and believes all the English and the Irish to be enemies. Then, she meets Clare, an Irish girl in York. As the story unspools, she starts to examine what she’s been told and what she’s assumed.
Blankman’s prose is always precise and fine: I thought of pen-and-ink drawings and the green-floored children’s room of the library I knew in early childhood as I read, and even after a 60 hour work week of staring at screens, I read on my e-reader without stopping. The Enemy’s Daughter put me in mind of the best books published in the mid to late 20th century: Eleanor Cameron’s Julia Redfern books,, Katherine Paterson, and Ruth M Arthur are fair comparisons.
I have no reservations in recommending this excellent novel to readers, particularly those who like historical fiction or stories that ask the reader to engage with hard questions. It’s early in 2025 to put this on a list of bests, but I am guessing it will be there. I can’t think of anything to find fault with and will absolutely want my own print copy when this comes out on February 17.
I received a copy of The Enemy’s Daughter by Anne Blankman from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.