What is in a name? Does your name reflect who you are and what if you change your name or use an alias? Does that help you achieve anonymity, does it help you create a new persona?
During World War II, as the Germans invaded France, many Frenchmen became part of the resistance. Partisans who hid in the woods and learned to fight with guns air dropped for their use against the Germans.
Code Name Helene written by is really historical fiction but it can almost feel at times like a thriller.
Written by Ariel Lawhon, this is an intriguing novel based on the real life heroine, Nancy Wake, who during the war took on four different names and identities. It is 1936 and young Nancy Wake has traveled from Australia to the glamorous city, Paris after talking her way into a journalist position reporting for the Hearst newspaper. As she captures the hearts of the young men around her, the war is picking up and her first hand experiences are disturbing. Romantically she swept off her feet by the handsome businessman, Henri Fiocca and just as she becomes his wife with her first name change she gets caught up in the war and takes on a code name, Lucienne Carlier, her cover, an oblivious mistress, as she carries papers, documents and smuggles people across the border. She becomes known as the White Mouse and there is a bounty on her head, so she joins special forces and becomes Helene learning from the Special Operations Executives, then she is airdropped into the woods of France to lead the Resistance army of bedraggled men as she directs missions and orders air dropped weapons and other needs to help them win the war.
All this is done with the alias, Madame Andre. Wearing her signature red lipstick creates for her the powerful image she wants to portray. This is a complicated story but so powerful and amazing that it makes you wonder if you would have the stamina and courage to be anything like her in a time of crisis.
With some red lipstick and the proper name can a woman change the world?
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