by Lynne Olson
First published 2019
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade leads the largest intelligence network in occupied France during World War II. At thirty-one, this privileged young mother becomes the only woman to serve as chef de résistance. Her organization Alliance operates with three thousand agents using animal code names, earning the nickname Noah's Ark from the pursuing Gestapo. Fourcade adopts the alias Hedgehog for herself. Her network supplies crucial intelligence to Allied commanders, including a fifty-five-foot map of D-Day landing beaches. The Gestapo relentlessly hunts her agents, capturing and executing hundreds, including her lover and key operatives. Fourcade constantly moves headquarters, changes her appearance, and shifts identities while keeping the network intact. The Nazis capture her twice. She escapes both times, once slipping naked through prison bars. Author Lynne Olson chronicles how Fourcade held her crumbling organization together through years of occupation, surviving when so many of her agents perished defending France.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii, biography-memoir, military-history, espionage
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: France, Gestapo
Period: World War II
464 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: death, violence, war