Fans of WWII stories will love Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn.
Imagine growing up in a fairly typical American family, only to find out as an adult that your grandparents were German spies, working for Japan, while living in Hawaii during WWII.
That is journalist Christine Kuehn’s story. A story she knew nothing about until she received a letter from a screenwriter about it.
Her life and family were forever changed by that letter.
The Kuehns, Otto, Friedel, Ruth, Leopald, Eberhard, who was Christine’s father, and Hans, were a German family living in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi.
Ruth, the daughter of the family and Christine’s aunt, had an affair with Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels. The family had a secret, though. Ruth was half Jewish.
When Goebbels found out, he could have killed Ruth. Instead, he arranged for Otto, Friedel, Ruth, Eberhard, and Hans to move to Hawaii, where they became spies who sent secrets to Japan. Leopold stayed in Germany, where he was a rising Nazi leader.
In Hawaii, the Kuehns developed and ran a spy operation out of their home. The secrets that were passed back and forth led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor changed the war and the Kuen family forever.
Eberhard never shared his family’s secret past with his family. Christine grew up knowing nothing of what her father’s family had done.
Published in 2025, Family of Spies is Christine’s decades long journey of uncovering her family’s secrets. In the book, she shares not only her family’s story but also how she learned to cope with knowing what her family had done.
This book is about war and secrets. It is about family and where we come from. It is about realizing that we can’t choose our family, but we can choose not to follow in their same path.
Christine Kuehn has a background in journalism and public relations. She knows how to write and share a story, so Family of Spies is a well written narrative nonfiction read.
This book takes you on a riveting, wild ride through WWII history. I have read many books about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but this one is my new favorite. It shares a part of WWII history that few people know about.
Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn will be one of my favorite reads of 2025. It is precisely why I love to read nonfiction. Fact really is stranger than fiction. Why read a fictitious story when a true story is as crazy as this one is?
If you like WWII, true crime, or espionage type books, I highly recommend this one.
It would also make a great gift for a nonfiction reader or a history lover.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’d not heard of this one yet but it will put it on my list to read in 2026. It sounds fascinating on both the personal and political front and I’m glad you mentioned the author talks about how she’s coped with learning about her family history. As I began to read your review, that was the first thing I wondered about.
I just found it at my library. Absolutely enjoy finding book that others recommend ….this looks really good. Great job reviewing it.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it!
Hi Lynn,
I’ve followed your food blog for decades, it seems 🙂
I’ve been enjoying your book reviews just lately.
Is there any link where my buying a book you recommend benefits you?
And if not, why not?
I am so glad that you have been enjoying my book reviews. And yes, you have been a long time follower of my kitchen adventures! Thank you for supporting both my sites. If I link to a book on Amazon, like I did in this post and in most of my book lists and reviews, it is an affiliate link, so I get a small percent back. I usually just link once of twice in a review like this one, not every time I mention that book title. I occasionally use other affiliate links, but since most of what I promote are books I use mainly Amazon. I am so grateful to people who use those links because they help support my sites and what I do. Does that help answer your question?
Thanks. Now I see the link, but I couldn’t at first! 🙂