The Ambassador’s Daughter: A Novel

The Ambassador’s Daughter is the standalone prequel to two other books in Jenoff’s brilliant catalog, The Kommandant’s Girl and The Diplomat’s Wife. In this post-World War I study of the heart set against a backdrop of intrigue, deceit, intricate and ultimately doomed treaties, Margot Rosenthal navigates the increasingly complex and changing world following “the war to end all wars.” Yet the issue of whom to trust and whom to love remains as complicated and rife with secrets as ever; the casualties of war continuing even after the last shots have been fired.

Margot is an astute and engaging narrator who isn’t always completely forthright with her audience. She finds herself bored by all the pomp and circumstance of the diplomatic mission, the old opulence, and convention which doesn’t feel so important now that so many have died, and she seeks a more meaningful occupation. She finds it in helping Georg, a German naval officer, but knowing him only increases her conflicted feelings about the world and her role in it. The Ambassador’s Daughter captures the turmoils following WWI very well, and brings the world alive on the page, making it vivid, thrilling, and poignant.