By Ande Jacobson

The Diamond Eye is Kate Quinn’s largely biographical novel chronicling the story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a woman who made a huge contribution to defeating Hitler’s assault on her homeland during WWII. Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian born Russian woman who became a deadly sniper in the Red Army in the early days of the war. Her story shows that while there’s a certain amount of luck in surviving the horrific conditions she endured, her skills and determination were invaluable in her efforts. While Quinn is famous for writing historical fiction, weaving gripping stories surrounding historic times or events, this novel is drawn more directly from an original source than most. Her primary reference for the novel was Pavlichenko’s autobiography, Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper. She used an English translation by David Foreman as a central part of her research beyond various official records to which she had access. As such, almost all of the characters are from real life in this story, although one major character is a composite of two real men. Quinn also used a bit of poetic license with respect to Pavlichenko’s autobiography, at times reordering some events to create a more cohesive storyline and filling in some gaps in the timeline. It’s likely that some of the events in the source material were themselves smoothed and brightened given the work was approved by the Soviet Union and thus was potentially at least partially propaganda. On the other hand, the official record of various events is clear and independently verifies much of the material. Continue reading →