Marian Sutro has survived Ravensbruck & is back in dreary 1950s London trying to pick up the pieces of her pre-war life Returned to an England she barely knows & a post-war world she doesn't understand Marian searches for something on which to ground the rest of her life Family & friends surround her & a young RAF officer attempts to bring her the normalities of love & affection but she is haunted by her experiences & by the guilt of knowing that her contribution to the war effort helped lead to the development of the Atom Bomb Where in the complexities of peacetime does her loyalty lie? When a mysterious Russian diplomat emerges from the shadows to draw her into the ambiguities & uncertainties of the Cold War she sees a way to make amends for the past & to renew the excitement of her double life Simon Mawer's sense of time & place is perfect Tightrope is a compelling novel about identity & deception which constantly surprises the reader