Publishers Weekly
10/17/2016
Coelho's striking novel about Margaretha Zelle, aka Mata Hari, the Dutch courtesan and "exotic" dancer who was executed in 1917 for treason and in all likelihood was innocent, unfolds through letters to her lawyer that she hopes will be given to her daughter if she is killed. Smooth, assured writing reveals a woman who refuses to be a victim: "someone who moved forward with courage, fearlessly paying the price she had to pay." She was raped by her headmaster at school and abused by her husband (a Dutch military officer), and she retaliated by exploiting the European love of the mysterious Orient through her "Eastern" veil dances. Although the novel is not Coelho's strongest work, the ending is brilliant in its irony, and throughout, he displays an ability to inhabit her voice. Through the letters, he illustrates the difficulties of being an independent woman in that time and place. By the end, readers will believe they've read Zelle's actual letters. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Paulo Coelho and The Spy
“[The Spy is a] masterful new novel.” —Bookpage
“Coelho, whose books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, has taken the Mata Hara story and fashioned it into a short dynamo of a novel.” —Los Angeles Times
“A striking novel. . . . By the end, readers will believe they’ve read [Mata Hari’s] actual letters.” —Publisher’s Weekly
“Coelho has created a portrait of an anachronistic woman, who was destroyed by her times and became a legend.” —Paste Magazine
“A novelist who writes in a universal language.” —The New York Times
“Spiritualists and wanderlusts will eagerly devour . . . [Coelho’s] search for all things meaningful.” —The Washington Post
DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile
This short dual-narrated audiobook imagines what the imprisoned Mata Hari was thinking while awaiting either her execution or her pardon from the French government for being a German spy in WWI. Hillary Huber uses an indeterminate European accent to voice Mata Hari's thoughts, which is fitting for the young Dutch woman who was dead set on making Paris her home. Huber's performance highlights Mata Hari's many layers, including her naïve trust in men and her passion to live life on her own terms. Paul Boehmer's believable French accent, colored with sorrow and frustration, is appropriate for the accused woman's lawyer, Edouard Clunet. This brief story of the famous dancer's rise and fall sheds little light on the supposed spy's innocence or guilt. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-10-06
Coelho’s (Adultery, 2014, etc.) novel about Mata Hari, the notorious and (in all likelihood) falsely accused World War I spy, hews closely to the facts.A prologue reveals what we already know from history: Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in Paris on Oct. 15, 1917. The rest of the book consists of Mata’s fictional letter to her defense attorney, M. Clunet, written while on death row in the Saint-Lazare prison, and a similarly speculative letter of regret by Clunet. Mata cynically and philosophically details her bare-bones autobiography: she was born Margaretha Zelle to a bourgeois family in Holland. Raped by a school principal at 16, she is desperate to escape school and Holland: this she achieves by marrying a Dutch army captain and moving to Indonesia. The officer beats and sexually abuses her for years, until another military wife’s suicide and a performance by Javanese dancers inspire Margaretha to rebel and return to Europe. Making her way to Paris, she introduces herself as Mata Hari to an impresario, Monsieur Guimet, who invites her to premiere her act—a spectacle that combines Java-esque dance moves and strip tease—at his museum. Her performances, a mélange of titillation and sophistication, quickly catapult her to fame in the priciest nightclubs; soon she's the toast of Paris. With this go riches accumulated as the mistress of wealthy industrialists and bankers. Living only for pleasure, Mata is oblivious to the approaching hostilities of the Great War, so when she is invited to perform in Berlin, she goes without hesitation only to find that she is being recruited as a spy for the kaiser. What follows is a grim comedy of errors as Mata, after traveling back to Paris through a war zone, offers her services to France as a double agent. Unfortunately, her French handler has a hidden agenda. The absurdity of the charges against Mata Hari comes through clearly, but even as she tells her own story we never get a sense of her humanity, only her various personas and masks. A sympathetic but sketchy portrait of a legend.
