The story of the relationship between two SOE agents during WWII, an Indian woman and an Englishman, in the tradition of Charlotte Gray and Casablanca.
John Sutherland, an instructor for the RAF, first meets Nora Wilson on a night flight carrying them both into occupied France. Nora's real name is Noor, an Indian princess, the daughter of a Sufi guru who emigrated to the USA; herself a Sufi, opposed in principle and practice to the taking of life, she has nonetheless joined the RAF and been seconded to the Special Operations Executive and 'Prospero's network', the SOE's wartime presence in France.
The novel is presented as Sutherland's recollections of Noor's story. Joffrin sharply evokes the claustrophobia of being a spy in occupied France and the strange ordinariness of the German occupation, the months of subterfuge and sabotage, the interrogations, fears of being caught and the Germans' eventual discovery of 'Prospero's network'. Sutherland, Noor and their colleagues are imprisoned and some of them tortured with the aim of uncovering the radio codes necessary for intercepting Allied communications. Noor is not tortured, but withstands harsh interrogation. She plans, with others, an escape, eventually. Most of the network succeed in escaping. During the escape itself Noor realises why she has not been tortured, and why her SOE instructor had told her to keep rather than destroy her radio codebooks. London had mounted an elaborate coup, leaving messages within the codebook which would alert them to the Nazis using her radio. In order for the plan to succeed, Noor must abandon her attempt at escape, allow her colleagues to flee and return to her cell. Only in doing so cane she persuade her captor Goetz to continue to use her radio post. Her sacrifice allows London to continue to feed disinformation to the self- satisfied SS commander, and ultimately divert German attention from the true site of the Normandy landings.
Based on the true story of Noor Inayat Khan, this is a wonderful and beautifully written read, in the tradition of Sebastian Faulks and Douglas Kennedy.
