Simon Mawer introduces us to Marian Sutro, a British citizen, recruited from the WAAF because of her ability to speak fluent French.  Marian’s father is British, and her mother is French, and she was raised in Geneva allowing her to move between both English and French as though they are one language without accents.  This ability was invaluable to a secret organization training spies.

The Women of SOE (Special Operations Executive) were recruited because of their ability to speak fluent French.  Men were also recruited to a lesser degree.  After intensive training, they were dropped into Nazi-occupied France during WWII.

Marion is young, adventurous and almost fearless.  If anything her commanders tried to instill a little caution into her daring, but she had a youthful hubris and moved stealthy through all the training obstacles knowing that at some point she would be placed in life and death situations that she had a 50/50 chance of getting out alive.

What is so striking to me is the communication at that time – no Twitter, no Instagram, no minute by minute video of the war being screened in our living rooms.  It’s amazing how far we have come from Morris Code to our modern communications.

I’m so glad I read this book.  I didn’t know anything about these brave women and they were certainly extremely brave.  I believe this is a wonderful book for book club because you learn about real life situations and what some brave women did because they felt they had to.  You can also discuss the differences in communication, technology and the way wars are fought today.  I would have felt all alone out there with only my wits to get me through.

The end of the book leaves you wondering.  And in the end you just can’t help but ask why? Why did she?

Rating: 8.5