Book
Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler / Lynne Olson.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780812994766 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xxiv, 428 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, [2019]
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Prologue, 1936-1942 -- Leaping into the unknown -- The chaos of defeat -- Fighting back -- Spying in Marseille -- The birth of alliance -- Danger in Paris -- Taking command -- A network in peril -- The mailbag -- The return of Léon Faye -- A game of wits -- "An undisputed leader" -- "Sitting on a barrel of gunpowder" -- The traitor -- A general escapes -- Captured -- Operation Attila -- "Down go the U-boats" -- 1943-1944 -- On the run -- The tinderbox of Lyon -- High anxiety -- "Here you are at last!" -- "The most remarkable girl of her generation" -- Pink heather -- Calamity -- Captives -- The map -- Going home -- 1944-1945 -- Caught in the net -- Liberation and beyond -- "Hail Mary, full of grace" -- The road to Gethsemane -- Epilogue. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Biographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown Branch | 940.548644092 Fourc-O | 31681010144459 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
The New York Times best-selling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island tells the true story of the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II. - Random House, Inc.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠The little-known true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II, from the bestselling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island
âBrava to Lynne Olson for a biography that should challenge any outdated assumptions about who deserves to be called a hero.ââThe Washington Post
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE WASHINGTON POSTÂ
In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organizationâthe only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her countryâs conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her groupâs name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noahâs Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, âeven a lion would hesitate to bite.â
No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligenceâincluding providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Dayâas Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcadeâs own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escapeâonce by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cellâand continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.
Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself.
âFast-paced and impressively researched . . . Olson writes with verve and a historianâs authority. . . . With this gripping tale, Lynne Olson pays [Marie-Madeleine Fourcade] what history has so far denied her. France, slow to confront the stain of Vichy, would do well to finally honor a fighter most of us would want in our foxhole.ââThe New York Times Book Review
