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The Lipstick Bureau

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The Lipstick Bureau

By: Michelle Gable
Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill
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About this listen

1944, Rome. Newlywed Niki Novotná is recruited by a new American spy agency to establish a secret branch in Italy’s capital. One of the OSS’s few female operatives abroad and multilingual, she’s tasked with crafting fake stories and distributing propaganda to lower the morale of enemy soldiers.

Despite limited resources, Niki and a scrappy team of artists, forgers and others — now nicknamed The Lipstick Bureau — find success, forming a bond amid the cobblestoned streets and storied villas of the newly liberated city. But her work is also a way to escape devastating truths about the family she left behind in Czechoslovakia and a future with her controlling American husband.

As the war drags on and the pressure intensifies, Niki begins to question the rules she’s been instructed to follow, and a colleague unexpectedly captures her heart. But one step out of line, one mistake, could mean life or death...

Loosely inspired by real-life OSS operative Barbara Lauwers, The Lipstick Bureau is about a woman challenging convention and boundaries to help win a war, no matter the cost.

©2022 Michelle Gable (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers 20th Century Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Biography Heartfelt War Italy Rome
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Didn’t quite measure to my expectations. Not the spy novel I had hoped for. Well read though.

Struggled to the end

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I like historical books around WW2 but I usually read the British/Commonwealth experience. It was enjoyable to read this American story and good to know it is based on a true story.

Excellent

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