Code Name Hélène: A Novel

This is a well-written, fictional account about a real person, a well-respected Australian female resistance fighter during WWII France. But we start with her early days working as a feisty journalist before transporting Jews to safety, to finally organizing French civilian fighters and then sabotaging the Germans. There is also a romance sub-plot. Though the main character is a formidable leader, I didn’t really like her. It didn’t help that the book was really long and there were too many characters for me to keep track of. I listened to the audio version, and the accents seemed fine.

This was one of many WWII books that I’ve read recently and this was by far the best. I loved this real-life story about Nancy Wake, an Australian girl who is working as a freelance reporter in Paris in the late 30’s. She meets Henri Fiocca and she begins a fairy tale life with this French industrialist, but it’s brought to a quick end with the beginning of WWII. Nancy isn’t your ordinary socialite. She’s brave, impulsive and determined to do her part to get the Germans out of France. Ms. Lawson has done a great deal of research for this book, and her true happenings and real-life characters are mixed together to make one cracker of a story. The book is exciting from beginning to end and I couldn’t put it down. Nancy Wake, the real person, was a real force and she never gave up an inch while pursuing her goal to hit the Germans hard. This book goes onto to my special favourites list. And thanks to my secret Santa for choosing it for me.

Code Name Hélène: A Novel – Ariel Lawhon, author; Barrie Kreinik, Peter Ganim, narrators
Although based on the life of the very real Australian, Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, many of the details are nevertheless made out of whole cloth. Still, Nancy was a remarkably brave and talented young woman. Moving back and forth in time, from 1936 to 1945, the reader is introduced to her and her many personas during that time. Those details and the horrific details described are also authentic. When we first meet Nancy, she is a journalist living in Paris. She does freelance work for the Hearst Enterprise and is investigating the atrocities committed by Hitler, and yet, it is only 1936, when we begin to share her journey. The war has not yet begun. As a female, she encounters roadblocks and resistance regarding the publication of her submissions to the newspaper and rarely, if ever, received recognition. This is a time when the opportunities for women were very limited. Women were pretty much consigned to the duties of home, the kitchen and family or to nursing.
Although I have read extensively about this period of time, the information I glean from every new book written about the atrocities of Hitler and his supporters never ceases to amaze me. I always learn of some new dreadful action taken by Hitler or of some new hero determined to defy him and his barbaric dreams. This book is no exception. I had never before read about Nazis or the Vichy sympathizers tying an elderly woman to a waterwheel and whipping her, but it is, among other barbaric behaviors, revealed in this novel.
The narrative travels between Nancy’s undercover activity and her journalistic career, her marriage to Henri Fiocca and her resistance work for the British SOE, organizing the underground effort working to defeat Hitler in France and risking her life as a secret agent. The timeline is sometimes confusing as it moves back and forth revealing different events. Nancy parachutes into occupied Paris and encounters actual resistance from the very groups she is trying to help, simply because she is a woman. Still, she is as capable as they are, if not more so, and is as willing to be as crude and unmannerly as those she is charged to help. She establishes her authority and gains their respect as their leader. They are fighting against Hitler and that is enough motivation for her to work with them, supply them and support them. The book exposes the collaborators, the traitors, the patriots, the heroes, the cowards, and the many varied victims of Hitler as he attempted to establish his Third Reich. The bravery of those who defied them is remarkable.
The book has all the ingredients to be a great spy novel. It has interesting characters intrigue, authentic history and romance, but it overdid the romance a bit for me. I found it distracted from the details of the danger she faced and detracted from the authenticity of the history. The escapades sometimes stretched the imagination as did some of the things Nancy found necessary, like a satin nightgown to sleep in while others were starving or the need for victory, red lipstick which she apparently used to great advantage. She marched to the beat of her own drummer in a time when women generally did not.
I did often have to remind myself that this was fiction written about a non-fiction character, that it was based on her real life as a journalist, secret agent, wife and leader of the resistance. She did indeed marry the Frenchman, Henri Fiocca. She did indeed work with the many secret agents revealed in this book to free France from the clutches of Germany’s madmen and was influential in the Special Operations Executive of Britain during WWII and was an active member of the French Resistance as Madame Andree. As the White Mouse she risked her life doing undercover work and was eventually identified. She acquired a real nickname, Duckie, from one of her associates. She was indeed an interesting woman who deserved to be recognized, and eventually she was, when she was honored by many organizations for her contribution to the war effort and her unbelievable courage and bravery. The book had all the ingredients to become a great spy novel with its interesting characters, its intrigue and its place in history.

Nancy Wake was a freaking bad ass! This fictional account of her contribution to WW2 is pretty dang spot on.Lawhorn writes an engaging story about Nancy Wake WW2 resistance fighter in France. I feel like I was there right beside Wake.

Going from a little-known, extraordinary historical figure, Nancy Wake has finally been brought forth into the limelight by this fascinating novel as well as being brought to life on the big screens in the movie Liberation which is out soon. (COVID-19 dependent now!) So in the absence of cinema outings, or in fact any outgoings anywhere, now is the perfect time to pick up a good book and get reading. And this book is the perfect one for that!

In this historical fiction novel the story is derived from true life events and the real life of Nancy Wake, who during WWII went above and beyond for her country, showing incredible courage, resilience, spirit and determination in the face of the enemy and her adversaries, all whilst wearing her signature red lipstick!

Hélène was just one of four code names used by Nancy Wake along with Lucienne Carlier, Madam Andre and the White Mouse. She was loved by the people around her and the countless people she helped, yet she was feared and hunted by the German army who even but a huge bounty for her capture.

She managed some truly amazing feats against the Nazi's such as training with Special Operations, playing a major role in the French resistance forces, smuggling people out of occupied France as well as delivering orders, weapons, and supplies to the men working with the French resistance, and this book takes us with her on some of her deadly missions. 

Alongside her heroic missions this book shines brightly with her love for husband Henry Fiocca, their marriage and this story alternates between Nancy the spy and Nancy the wife. Her successes as well as the high prices she had to for pay and endure for it.

The level of research that has gone into this book truly brings Nancy alive across the pages as well as bringing history to life.

Even if historical or war stories are not for you I would still highly recommend giving this book a chance. It may be set in WWII and include espionage, but this book is so so much more than a war story.

This is a story of an amazing heroine who deserves to be recognised and remembered and the quality of Ariel Lawhon's writing has done Nancy proud!

Code Name Hélène was published on 31 Mar. 2020 and I strongly advise you to grab a copy now. A heart wrenching, heart warming, inspirational story for any book lover, regardless of your usual genres. This is a must read for anyone and everyone that enjoys  a brilliant, well written book. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this interesting book.

I am always so in awe of stories about real people who defy what society expects of them, pushing boundaries with their determination and grit. Nancy Wake is one of those people.

The story time-jumps between 1936 - 1944 and pulls you into Nancy's world. It does a great job of showing us the bond between Nancy and Henri (her eventual husband) along with the horrors of WWII. Some of the Nazi scenes are hard to digest, knowing they were written based on real-life scenarios.

Nancy is an amazing woman, and I'm so glad I read this story as I'd not heard of her before. The book makes me want to visit Marseille France, it sounds so beautiful! The characters were very interesting and well fleshed out, the story haunting because I knew it was real. The author did a fantastic job and I can't imagine all the research that went into writing this book.

The only thing I struggled with was the length of this book. It's a long one, but take my comment with a grain of salt. I read this during the first few weeks of COVID-19, and I struggled to concentrate on anything, much less a long novel!

If I had read this book instead of listened to the audiobook I might have known that it was based upon the life of a real woman but the author's notes at the end came as a complete surprise to me. I am still in awe of Nancy Wake, a journalist from Austraila who married a Frenchman just before World War II. Her bravery, courage and guts makes me feel very insignificant.

Nancy left Australia at a young age and travelled around the world. She was hired as a free-lance journalist in the 1930s while she was living in Paris. So she was in the right place to see the development of fascism in Europe and to write about it. She even interviewed Adolf Hitler just after he became the chancellor of Germany. However, her name never became known because women journalists were never given a byline at that time. After meeting the very good looking Henri Fiocca who is a shipping magnate based in Marseille she starts spending quite a bit of time there. Eventually Nancy and Henri marry and she moves to Marseille permanently. Henri's former lover, Marceline, is extremely jealous of Nancy and is determined to break up the marriage. When the Germans invade France she becomes a supporter of the Vichy government but Henri and Nancy are firmly on the side of the French resistance. Soon Nancy is helping Jews and others to escape from France and has earned the nickname "La Souri Blanche" or the White Mouse. She has a bounty on her head and has to flee from France, leaving Henri and her dog Picon behind. We know right from the beginning of the book that Nancy returns to France in 1944 to bring help to the maquis, the French resistance, as an operative for the British SOE. In that role she is called Madame Andree but her code name is Helene, hence the title of the book. From dropping by parachute into the French countryside to fleeing to the woods just ahead of the Nazis to being the only woman among two hundred men her life is almost constantly in danger. Although she is in France she cannot contact her husband and she has no idea what has happened to him. She must just put that worry aside until her mission is complete.

This book will be one I recommend to a lot of people I think.

This book is based on the life of Nancy Wake, an Australian expat who worked as a reporter for Hearst in Paris just before WWII and later as a spy for the British. Lawhon throws readers into the middle of the action, as Nancy, under the alias Hélène, prepares to parachute from an RAF plane into France to help the Resistance in 1944, carrying in her head memorized lists of vital data, including bridges targeted for destruction and safe house addresses.

Story of Nancy Wake the Australian citizen who became one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance. Well written and good development of all the characters. Recommended.

Excellent. Better yet, closely based on a true story.

I downloaded the audio version of Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon after finding out it was included in my Audible subscription. What did I have to lose — it was free after all. What I won was an excellent reading experience featuring a courageous woman who really existed. This book sucked me in from the get go as it detailed the exploits of Nancy Wake, a tough and determined woman who was invaluable to the French Resistance during WWII. This was a story that needed to be told! Nancy’s story — from international journalist prior to WWII through her work as a super-spy — is told in two storylines. I loved how Lawhon revealed key parts of the story in this way. It also helped to soften the hard experiences that are laid out. The historical details are well-researched and had me googling for more. Nancy’s character, as well as others, are well-drawn and made me feel like I really knew them. This book is a must-read for WWII fiction fans, but please be aware that it is filled with adult elements — language and situations. If it was a movie it would get an R rating, especially for violent images and language. If this doesn’t bother you, then I highly recommend it. A few of my friends gathered to discuss this book, and they all loved it too. The narration for the audiobook is excellent as well. The handling of the many accents was an achievement in its own right.

Highly Recommended. (caveats — adult language and situations, violence)

Audience: adults.

(I downloaded the audiobook from Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

A fun, page-turning read about Nancy Wake. A female leader in the French resistance during WW2.

After reading this, I did some research on the character and discovered that her work as a Resistance fighter, and the things she did were based on the facts. I won't spoil it, but the main fictitious element was put in to add narrative drama. Nancy Wake's actions, as chronicled in this historical fiction, were real. Her daring and bravery were remarkable. Made me want to read her biography. But I thought the one huge fictitious element in the story was forced, so I can't rate it more highly.

Slow to start but documents the life of Nancy wake, married to a French man works for the resistance, walks out over the Pyrenees and then joins the home office as an agent to come back into France

What a story! Nancy Wake, feisty, foul-mouthed and beautiful becomes a resistance leader of the Maquis in France and an SOE agent in England. Love story, WW II story. I want to read more about her real life!

After meeting and marrying a wealthy French man, Nancy Wake embraces life in France. When WWII begins, Nancy is determined to help those around her. She begins by small smuggling jobs, until she has advanced to smuggling people out of the country. Alternating, it is the end of the war and Nancy has parachuted into France from England to arm and run pockets of French Resistance members. The book ultimately merges the two stories, showing how Nancy ended up in England.

This was a well told and interesting story. I had a hard time putting the book down, and found myself reading late into the night. Nancy was quite the hero and went above and beyond what most did during the war - what a fascinating person. I can only hope that I would have a fraction of her courage. Overall, highly recommended.

This fantastic new novel is based on the life of Nancy Wake who became one of the most decorated women in WWII. She is an Australian who moved to Paris to become a reporter but soon fell in love with a rich French industrialist. After the Germans invade Paris she decides that she has to help Jewish people escape from France before they are found by the Germans. When she is suspected of helping people escape, she moves to Marseilles where she feels like she will be safer. The Germans refer to her as the White Mouse and she soon has a bounty of five million francs on her head. She escapes from France into England and then after training in England she is dropped back into France to help train the members of the resistance who are loyal to France but often lacking in training and guns. She was one of the most powerful leaders in the French resistance and even though she always insisted on wearing her red lipstick, she was a ferocious fighter and a hero for her accomplishments in the war.

She's known by many names: Nancy Wake, Helene, Madame Andree, and - to the Germans who want to catch her - the White Mouse. But Nancy Wake is a bold, brash woman who does not suffer fools, and when the Germans invade France, she begins working against them. This is her story, going back and forth between a particular mission in 1944 and flashing back through the eight years leading up to that mission.

I really enjoyed the stylistic complexity of going back and forth in time, a narrative device that was used to good effect to keep tensions high and to make the reader realize the significance of a name or an interaction in a different way than a straightforward, chronological narrative would have done. Nancy is a fascinating woman, and having her as the first-person narrator put you right there with her in the city Marseilles and on the ground with the Maquis, French Resistance fighters in World War 2. The author's note does explain a few instances where the author changed details, but by and large this seems to hew closely to the historical record, and certainly left me wanting to learn more about its heroine.

Why isn't there a movie about Nancy Wake? Maybe there is & I've missed it, because it's hard to believe no one has read about this fascinating woman and not created an action-packed film about her exploits in the French Resistance. The fictionalized woman presented in this novel is vivid, with her red lipstick, clever quips, and ruthless approach to the men she led and the Nazis she fought against. I would have wished for a happier personal ending for her and her husband, but I also appreciate the novelist sticking to the facts. I loved this book and I hope to see more - fiction and nonfiction - written about Nancy Wake.

One of the best things about historical fiction is meeting historical figure about whom I knew nothing. Nancy Wake, Australian by birth, French by choice, British spy by necessity. Her heroism during World War II is an interesting story. Chapters are well titled to know when they take place as her story moves back and forth from a journalist stationed in Paris before the war and the strange turn it took during the war. Sometimes I wonder if there were ever any average looking women who made good spies, but again, a woman’s beauty makes them more attractive to enemies they were trying to engage. Beauty, brains and bravery were Nancy Wake’s attributes and she used them well. How she kept her separate identities during the war as a spy is an interesting story.

Hélène is a reporter at the early part of the war. She meets and marries Henri, the love of her life. He is sent to protect the Maginot line. While he is gone, she drives and ambulance and ends up, in a convoluted way, with the resistance. She helped change the history of WWII. And because of all her undercover activities, she saved a multitude of lives.

When this story began, I was in awe of Hélène. And I pretty much stayed that way through the whole book. This woman was a powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with. However, the story is a little muddled, especially in the middle. But, boy am I glad I read it. I learned so much! What an amazing lady and and an amazing story of her life.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon is an exciting and absorbing novel of historical fiction based on the extraordinary wartime experiences of Nancy Wake.

The story unfolds from Nancy’s first person perspective over two timelines. The first, beginning in 1936, focuses on her life in Paris as a journalist, as a newlywed, and as a people and document smuggler known as Lucienne Carlier, which earns her the moniker of ‘The White Mouse’ with a bounty of five million francs in her head. The second timeline reveals her incredible role with the Maquis in southern France as a British Special Operations Executive where she is known as Madam André, code name Hélène, and leads a Resistance force of thousands during the last months of World War II.

Lawhon takes only minor liberties with the facts to tell Nancy’s amazing story whose courageous actions earned her a dozen wartime medals from four countries. Nancy, who died in 2011 aged 98, was an intelligent, attractive, and feisty woman who wore Victory Red lipstick as armour and a cyanide pill on her cuff. She could drink like a fish, and swear like a sailor, or sip cocktails and make polite conversation in a spine revealing cocktail dress. She was a friend, a smuggler, a wife, a spy, a fighter, a leader, she was, and remains, a hero.

All but one of the major characters in Code Name Hélène were real people, from Nancy’s contacts in the Resistance, to her beloved husband. She married wealthy industrialist Henri Fiocca just before Germany invaded France but they were soon separated when he was sent to the border to fight and again, when shortly after his return, Nancy’s actions attracted the attention of the Gestapo and she was forced to flee Paris. Their relationship is a significant and moving element of the novel.

I was completely caught up in Code Name Hélène from its first pages. I thought it very well paced as it moved between timelines, both of which built a sense of anticipatory tension, though there is more outright action during Nancy’s tenure with the Maquis.

Code Name Hélène is not just a story of adventure and romance, but also one of friendship, courage, tragedy, and hope. Until now I’ve known nothing of Nancy Wake, but I have every intention of tracking down a copy of her autobiography to learn more. Nancy Wake was an extraordinary woman, and Lawhon has written an extraordinary story which honours her.

spies, WW2-Europe, journalist, nonfiction, historical-figures, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research*****

The writing and storytelling is fluid and with a clarity that shines throughout this novel of a real superwoman all dressed up in the finery of fiction. An incredibly well done portrait of a truly remarkable woman of great bravery during the course of ww2 who was one of the most decorated women of that war. She was born in NZ but loudly recognized as Australia's greatest war heroine.
It is notably biographical but because of time telescoping and character melding it is not a biography
She called Henri the love of her life and they were faithful to to each other even though he was tortured and executed in 1943. Amazing and impressive are the words I'd use to recommend this book.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Doubleday Books via NetGalley. Thank you!