Publisher's Weekly Review
Eliasberg's fast-paced, insightful debut explores one woman's anxiety about helping to create the world's first nuclear weapon. Dr. Hannah Weiss, a Jew who escaped Nazi Germany, works with the Americans on the atom bomb in 1945 Los Alamos, N.Mex., where, thanks to her exceptional talent and stable personality, she fends off men's flirtations and chauvinistic assumptions. Hannah is alternately excited by the work and sobered by its implications, feeling a "frisson of energy and enormity up and down her arms and neck" while testing a reactor. Meanwhile, Hannah's colleagues circulate a petition about their concerns over the dangerous weapon, causing military intelligence to open an investigation into possible subversives on the team. The lead investigator, Maj. Jack Delaney, wants to know whether Hannah is actually spying for a Nazi physicist, but Jack's attraction to Hannah's "starchy self-determination" distracts him from the interrogation process as Hannah gains the upper hand, and suspicions, second-guessing, and simmering desire ensue between them. Clever phrasing and keenly developed characters add substance to the intrigue. Eliasberg's triumphant tale of Hannah transcending anti-Semitism and the pitfalls of workplace romance will satisfy readers. Agent: Adriann Zurhellen, Foundry Literary + Media, LLC. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
A Jewish nuclear physicist is accused of spying while working on the nuclear bomb in Los Alamos.During the waning months of World War II, the Americans and Germans are in a race to develop nuclear weapons; whoever wins, wins the world. Many refugee European scientists are working for the U.S. nuclear effort, headed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Among these refugees is Dr. Hannah Weiss, loosely based on Dr. Lise Meitner, the unsung physicist who discovered nuclear fission. Maj. Jack Delaney has come to Los Alamos to interrogate Hannah, suspected of being a Nazi mole. His suspicions are founded on a telegram she may have attempted to send overseas and a packet of postcards gleaned from a search of her room. Flashbacks to 1938 Berlin are interspersed throughout. Hannah, a brilliant scientist, is relegated to a basement lab of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and treated as a "Jewish slave." Her work on atom splitting is so valuable to the Reich, however, that what remains of her familyher Uncle Joshua and niece Sabinehave so far escaped the worst impacts of Nazi persecution. Her colleague Stefan, whose playboy charm Hannah tries to resist, takes credit for her work. But Stefan will eventually help Sabine, and then Hannah, escape Germany, and love overcomes her distrust. But should it? Screenwriter and TV director Eliasberg's first novel effectively evokes the atmosphere; descriptions of setting are never merely ornamental. However, her characters lack interiority. Jack never quite transcends the stereotype of the hard-boiled detective with inner wounds to match his external ones: A bullet he took during the liberation of Paris is still lodged near his spine. Hannah is the beautiful ice queen who conceals a molten core of passion. Far from delivering the intended frisson of growing attraction, Jack and Hannah's verbal sparring is too often verbose and didactic. The characters are so one-dimensional that readers won't particularly care which side they're on.A flawed novel which could, with the right cast to lend emotional depth, make very good TV. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Award-winning writer-director Eliasberg's first novel was inspired by an unnamed female physicist, mentioned in a New York Times article from the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Based on the real woman who discovered nuclear fission, it tells the story of what her life might have been. In 1945, Austrian physicist Hannah Weiss works in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It's discovered that research secrets are being leaked from the top-secret nuclear lab to Germany, and Hannah is suspected as a spy but the truth isn't always what is seems. The story then turns to 1938 Berlin, where young Hannah is dedicated to her research, but as a Jewish woman, she is often overlooked, and her ideas stolen by her German superiors. As the war unfolds, Hannah must decide when to remain loyal, and her choice will change the world forever. Eliasberg moves effortlessly between Hannah's past and present to deliver a historical love story full of intrigue and suspense. Hannah's War shines a much-needed light on one of the most influential women in history.--Melissa Norstedt Copyright 2020 Booklist
