The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans, Catherine Grace Katz

This book is a gem. Once again, I thank my customers who chose this  book for their monthly book club selection, as I had never heard of it  before. It is non-fiction and as engaging as any #1 novel on a  bestseller list. This is a dramatic story. The Yalta Conference was held  from February 4 to 11, 1945. In a sense, the main characters are the  daughters of Averell Harriman, U.S. ambassador to The Soviet Union;  Winston Churchill, the British prime minister; and Franklin Delano  Roosevelt, the ailing American president. The relationship of these  women with their fathers gave them extraordinary stature and opportunity  unavailable to most women at the time. Harriman charges his 27-year-old  daughter Kathleen with preparing for the Conference. Fierce family  loyalty, political savvy, an Olympic-level skier, and war correspondent  might describe her, who at her young age must organise three former  palaces of the Tzar that the German army has looted in their retreat  from the east; they left no toilets or doorknobs but lots of bedbugs.  Later on, Kathleen was a semi-official representative of the U.S.  government at the opening of mass graves in the Katyn forest, where the  Soviets had executed thousands of Polish officers and claimed the Nazis  did it. Sarah Churchill, an actress-turned-Royal Air Force officer, was  Churchill’s confidant. He could blow off steam in her presence without  having to be diplomatic. Anna Roosevelt, who had just moved into the  White House to care for/look after/guard her father, had as her job to  keep her father alive. It was by accident that these three men decided  to bring their daughters to the Conference, trust being the main  element. Stalin didn’t bring his daughter but he did bring NKVD boss  Lavrentiy Beria. An interesting tidbit: there were midnight meetings to  coordinate the approach to Berlin, so the allied armies didn't slaughter  each other. Don’t skip the last chapter, "After Yalta;" in many ways it  is the most insightful and moving of all. The Conference was the moment  before the Allied victory and the beginning of the Cold War. I’m  usually cautious about narrative-style history (there are 50 pages of  notes if you want to check sources), but this is too thrilling to miss.