The Secrets We Kept: A Novel

"In this debut novel, writer Lara Prescott reaches back to the early days of the CIA to tell the story of a young woman named Irina who is pulled from the CIA’s secretarial pool into the world of espionage. As a novice spy, Irina helps get copies of Doctor Zhivago into the Soviet Union, where it has been banned because of its depiction of life under communism. At the same time, she falls in love with the woman who has been assigned to teach her how to be a spy. Prescott merges this spy saga with the story of Zhivago author Boris Pasternak and his real life lover, Olga. In The Secrets We Kept Prescott takes a sliver of little-known spy history and weaves it together with the story behind a famous novel to create a satisfying read about the often hidden role women played in both espionage and art."