Code Name Hélène: A Novel

I just finished reading "Liberation" which is all about Nancy Wake. Found out about this book today. I read the inside cover write-up and it sounds much the same. Wondering how similar these stories really are. Can anyone tell me? Thank you.

Great read! I am not a big reader, I found that I was looking forward to picking up the book to see what was next. Based on a real person with added twists by the writer. The writing style engages you right away and holds your interest. It runs different timelines and different people's thoughts simultaneously throughout the book.

Hélène, one of just four aliases used by Nancy Wake during the war – but the story encompasses some twelve years starting in 1936. Nancy was Australian by birth, bold by nature, with a prodigious memory, stunning looks, a great laugh and a penchant for “Victory Red” Lipstick – that she used as armor: to distract and build her own confidence. From journalist working under the Hearst Corporation banner as a non-bylined freelancer, to leading and directing Resistance fighters numbering in the thousands, scaling the Pyrenees to escape capture and managing to juggle aliases from Hélène through Mrs. Fiocca, Lucienne Carlier, The White Mouse, Hélène, and finally, Madame Andrè Each alias has a part of the story to tell, each with their own focus and worries – and all wholly descriptive, engaging and emotionally available. We also have some perspective from Nancy’s husband, Henry Fiocca: the man who taught her to ride a bicycle, bought her a puppy, loved her like no other and ultimately was killed by (in the story) the Vichy-aligned chief of police. But it is the story of their coming together and separation, his inability to say ‘no’ to his wife, and his constant efforts to make her life better and easier with money, vehicles, prescient introductions to people and experiences as well as his teaching her to ‘swear’ like a man in French as well as hold her liquor. Not bashful or particularly willing to play games, her femininity was simply a tool, like a knife, that kept others on edge and often discounting the brave and very resourceful woman in front of them. As a read – this was one that (and few do) after the first chapters where readers “meet” Nancy, the story takes hold of your mind and your imagination, and putting it down is NOT an option. I lost sleep over this book: the emotions, the scenery and terrors, admiration of Nancy’s bravery (or pure unadulterated luck) in many situations: her selfless willingness to step out first for dangerous and potentially deadly missions, and her determination to eliminate the first (and to her mind, the worst) of the Nazi scourge from the earth. With heart pounding tensions and action, and heart breaking losses, the woman who would not have a byline in any newspaper far surpassed that simple notoriety from her actions, her bravery and the personality that the author cleverly managed to insert and explain. This is a favorite read for many reasons: learning and being able to further investigate the life of Nancy Wake is a bonus and one I will undertake immediately. Don’t look her up before reading: take this story (and the author’s suggestions for more / other tales) and prepare yourself to meet a genuine heroic woman. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.