The Paper Birds

Imagine you have only a pencil, paper, and your puzzle-solving skills to help end the war.

Gemma Sullivan lands a coveted office job in the summer of 1943, only to discover that she’s been hired to work in a top-secret code-breaking office in an unsuspecting house along the lake in Mimico, Ontario. The “Cottage” – run by the brilliant, eccentric Miss Fearing, who was trained at England’s Bletchley Park – pulls Gemma in with its urgent lure and mystery. But along with this job comes a lifelong oath of secrecy.

Gem can’t tell anyone what she does for work, not even her elderly Aunt Wren, who has raised her since the age of three after the tragic death of her parents. Her aunt harbours a deep love of crosswords and Tarot cards and an equally passionate hatred for war since the death of her own fiancé in WWI. The last thing she’d want for her niece is a job that involves anything to do with the war.

The code-breaking is intense, mind-numbing, at times, but as Gem is pulled deeper into wartime intelligence work, she becomes an integral part of the codebreakers’ circle. The Cottage code-breaking unit is small but determined, but in order to be successful, they must learn to work together.

But when Gem begins fraternizing with a handsome prisoner at a POW camp nearby – who later disappears – she risks losing everything.

“A deeply imagined historical novel, Lynes’s masterful prose breathes life into 1940s Toronto, intertwining the underground world of Canadian female codebreakers with two enchanting love stories. The Paper Birds is destined to become a book-club favourite.” — Shelly Sanders

“Heartfelt and suspenseful, The Paper Birds shines a light on the little-known work of Canada’s female codebreakers during the Second World War… This is a smart and tender take on the women whose brains were badly needed weapons in the Allied fight, juggling friendship, family, and first love alongside their vital and covert contributions.” — Shelley Wood

“The Paper Birds is a compelling tale of family, friendship, forbidden love and the heavy burden of secrets.” — Donna Alward