The Silent Hen

The Silent Hen is fiction based on actual events of WWII, written by Helen Montague Foster as a tribute to her parents and other courageous men and women of the OSS, whose secret struggles and relationships continue to impact the world. This morally complex story follows a Jewish child sheltered by a Muslim couple in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, and a Virginia woman named Lucy whose conscience compels her to enlist in the OSS, forerunner to the CIA, for service in Egypt.

After an OSS man in love is severely injured in a parachute drop, he and the child, Bella, begin a harrowing journey to Egypt, where Lucy's resemblance to Bella's murdered mother will confront them with decisions for which there are no easy answers.