Hill of Secrets, a debut novel by Reuters journalist Galina Vromen, takes place in the Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1943. The novel focuses on the lives of people brought to a remote desert by the U.S. Government to secretly develop the deadliest weapon of war. Although, the key characters in the book are fictional, the author bases her story on actual accounts by people who worked on the Manhattan Project while trying to lead “normal” lives in abnormal circumstances.
One of the key characters is Gertie, an inquisitive sixteen-year-old daughter of a German physicist, Kurt Koppel. Gertie and her parents were fortunate to escape from Germany in 1937. As they hear news of the Nazis’ atrocities against German Jews, Kurt and Sarah Koppel are consumed by fear for their extended families who have stayed behind.
After teaching physics at the Boston’s MIT, Kurt is proud to work on the important war effort. While Kurt’s wife Sarah tries her best to take care of her family she is still profoundly depressed by the horrible experience she had before leaving Germany. Sarah struggles to adjust to living in a strange land where high altitude ruins her fine dinners, and she has trouble connecting with other wives in the scientists’ compound. Gertie, suddenly uprooted from her school and friends in Boston, feels lonely, isolated, and confused. Gertie feels that her parents and everybody around her keep secrets from her.
Christine, a chemist and art restorer, has sacrificed her budding career as a curator of exhibitions at an important New York art gallery to follow her husband Thomas to a remote location out West for a highly secret government job. Arriving at Los Alamos Christine feels sidelined and neglected. She is unable to continue the work she loves because of the high level of censorship for any mail leaving the compound. Christine feels that her life has suddenly lost its purpose. Although she tries to be an “ideal wife” to Thomas, he is completely consumed by the work and usually takes her efforts for granted.
Restless and lonely, Christine befriends Gertie, even though there is a big age difference between them. Gertie, happy to finally find someone to talk with, helps Christine overcome her fear of water by teaching her to swim in a muddy lake within the residential compound. While riding a horse in the desert, Christine meets Maria, a native Indian pottery maker who creates beautiful clay pots based on the native Indian legends. Recognizing a unique beauty of Maria’s work Christine decides to introduce it at the New York art gallery. But when Thomas learns about Christine’s efforts to help Maria sell her creations, he considers it folly and a waste of time.
The author created a captivating, multilayer plot full of unexpected twists and turns. There is the first love between two young people that ends in tragedy— a clandestine love affair that is rudely broken by the G2 government security agents who resort to blackmailing the very people they are supposed to protect.
Working under intense pressure to produce results ahead of the enemy, scientists and engineers at Los Alamos are rightfully proud of their work. However, when they hear reports of the Hiroshima bombing, some begin to feel deep remorse once they fully understand the deadly, life destructing power they have unleashed on the world. Rather than retelling a story of the Manhattan Project from the scientists’ point of view, Vromen’s meticulously researched novel is a study of human lives changed by the war, even though they were far away from the battle fields. I was particularly fascinated by the book’s aspect about people who, although they love each other, feel extremely isolated and unable to communicate and share their deep thoughts and feelings. This book is a page tur
