The compulsively readable wartime diary of an emigre Russian princess who was secretary to Adam Von Trott, mastermind of the failed 20th of July Plot to assassinate Hitler. Idealistic, vivacious and observant, Missie was a diarist of the first order, and her book is both an absorbing portrait of 1940's Berlin and a gripping account of political conspiracy. William Maxwell called it "one long astonishment" in his "New Yorker" review.  (GER104, $15.95)