Enchanted Islands [Paperback]

Born to immigrant parents in Minnesota just before the turn of the century, Frances Frankowski grew up coveting the life of her best friend, Rosalie Mendel. And yet, decades later, when the women reconnect in San Francisco, their lives have diverged. Rosalie is a housewife and mother, while Frances works for the Office of Naval Intelligence and has just been given a top-secret assignment: marry handsome spy Ainslie Conway and move to the Galápagos Islands to investigate the Germans living there in the build-up to World War II.

Amid active volcanoes, forbidding wildlife and flora, and unfriendly neighbors, Ainslie and Frances carve out a life for themselves. But the secrets they harbor—from their friends, from their enemies, and even from each other—may be their undoing.“Enchanted Islandsis a many faceted jewel. It’s a spy thriller, a survivalist memoir, and a portrait of a marriage. . . . Fabulous…. Will carry you away.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“An endearing chronicle of female friendship.”—The New York Times Book Review,Editor’s Choice
 
“A vivid picture of a woman surviving in a place where friends and enemies alike can both enthrall and harm. The result is beautiful, terrifying, and haunting, a deeply moving lovechild between Elena Ferrante and John Le Carré.”—Chicago Review of Books
 
“Steeped in the wondrous history of the Galápagos and bursting with the magic of pure invention. An elegantstylist and a masterful chronicler of the most hidden and luminous corners of the human experience, Amend is a spectacular talent.”—Laura van den Berg, author ofFind Me

“A fascinating rumination on identity, friendship and love . . . [Amend] vividly evokes Duluth’s bleakness, Chicago’s sparkling bustle, rural l(