Family

Family is an important theme in the novel “The Secret Speech” by Tom Rob Smith. Family, thematically, involves the mutual love, compassion, loyalty towards, and emotional, spiritual, and even physical support of, individuals who may or may not be blood-related, but who behave in the way of the traditional family unit. In the novel, Leo struggles to maintain and protect his family, consisting of his wife, Raisa, and his two adopted daughters, Zoya and Elena. This proves to be a task which consumes the past three years of Leo’s life, and will last through most of the novel.

Zoya and Elena are orphaned children who have lost their parents to assassination at the hands of one of Leo’s MGB agents in the previous novel (“Child 44”). While Elena has come to accept Leo and love Raisa, Zoya has come to love Raisa but hates Leo...