Witness

Witness by Whittaker Chambers, 799 pages

In 1948, Whittaker Chambers, then an editor at Time magazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  He informed the committee of his long years in the Communist Party, first as a member of the "open" American Communist Party, later as a member of the Soviet Communist underground, assisting in the subversion of the US government, until his break with the Party in the mid-'30s.  Among the names Chambers named was that of Alger Hiss, then a highly placed official in the State Department.  The confrontation between Hiss and Chambers, as Hiss unsuccessfully sued Chambers for libel and then was himself convicted of perjury, polarized the nation.  Some saw Chambers' testimony as evidence of a vast Communist conspiracy, others as dangerous lies that had to be exposed, and still others believed that, even if what he said was true, it still had to be discredited lest it encourage the wrong kind of thinking.

Seventy years later, Witness, Chambers' autobiography written shortly after the conclusion of the Hiss case, can be read as a historical document chronicling a time when much of America's elites, faced with a choice between defending American institutions and providing cover for an aggressive dictatorship bent on subverting them, chose to side with Stalin.  More significantly, it can also be read as the story of the ultimately spiritual struggle of one man, sunk deep in darkness but saved by the light, who found the grace to witness to the truth in that world-historical moment.

Fiercombe Manor

Fiercombe Manor by Kate Riordan
403 Pages

"In this haunting and richly imagined dual-narrative tale that echoes the eerie mystery of Rebecca and The Little Stranger, two women of very different eras are united by the secrets hidden within the walls of an English manor house. In 1933, naive twenty-two year-old Alice--pregnant and unmarried--is in disgrace. Her mother banishes her from London to secluded Fiercombe Manor in rural Gloucestershire, where she can hide under the watchful eye of her mother's old friend, the housekeeper Mrs. Jelphs. The manor's owners, the Stantons, live abroad, and with her cover story of a recently-deceased husband Alice can have her baby there before giving it up for adoption and returning home. But as Alice endures the long, hot summer at Fiercombe awaiting the baby's birth, she senses that something is amiss with the house and its absentee owners. Thirty years earlier, pregnant Lady Elizabeth Stanton desperately hopes for the heir her husband desires. Tormented by the memory of what happened after the birth of her first child, a daughter, she grows increasingly terrified that history will repeat itself, with devastating consequences. After meeting Tom, the young scion of the Stanton family, Alice becomes determined to uncover the clan's tragic past and exorcise the ghosts of this idyllic, isolated house. But nothing can prepare Alice for what she uncovers. Soon it is her turn to fear: can she escape the tragic fate of the other women who have lived in the Fiercombe valley . . ."

A pretty good historical fiction novel I would give it 3 stars out of five.