Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity is a young adult historical novel by the American writer Elizabeth E. Wein, published in 2012. It was named a Printz Honor Book in 2013 and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

The novel is built around the friendship between two young British women during the Second World War: a wireless operator captured by the Germans in occupied France, and the pilot who flew her into the country. The prisoner is made to write out an account of her work, and she uses it to describe how she and the pilot met, how both of them reached the war effort, and what she is prepared to trade for more time. Wein researched the work women actually did in the conflict, including ferrying aircraft and operating radios behind the lines, and the book stays with the practical detail of those jobs.

A sequel, Rose Under Fire, followed in 2013, and a prequel, The Pearl Thief, appeared in 2017. Between them the two narrators cover both the flying and the radio work that the war opened up to women.