Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson is an amazing book about a woman who grew up in privilage and could have escaped, but when it came time she chose to join the resistance and help the Allies. This is the story of a strong woman and her courage to fight against Hitler's regime. I loved this book and found it hard to put down. I recommend this book to fans of history and the women that are often overlooked in it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Terrific book. I’ll be including it in a review column in the San FranciscoChronicle to run he first Sunday in April.

“The memory of an elephant, the cleverness of a fox, the guile of a serpent, and the fierceness of a panther.”

Marie-Madeleine Fourcaude ran the largest spy network in France during World War II. Charismatic, organized, intelligent and completely fearless, she was possessed of such obvious leadership skills that even very traditional Frenchmen (and a few Brits as well) came to recognize and respect her authority and ability. I had never heard of her before this galley became available; thanks to go Net Galley and Random House. This book is for sale now.

Fourcade was born into a wealthy family, and this fact almost kept me from reading this biography. Fortunately, others read it first and recommended it, and once I began reading I quickly caught onto the fact that no one without financial resources could have initiated and organized this network. At the outset, there was no government behind them and no funding other than what they could contribute themselves or scrounge up through the kinds of contacts that rich people have. There are a few fawning references to some of her associates—a princess here, a Duke there—that grate on my working class sensibilities, but they are fleeting.

Fourcade’s organization ultimately would include men and women from all classes, from magnates and royals to small businessmen, train conductors, waitresses, postal clerks and so on. Some were couriers delivering information about Nazi troop placement and movement, U-boats and harbors and so forth, whereas others quietly eavesdropped as they went about their daily routines. Once they were able to network with the British, the organization became better supplied and funded, and it had an enormous impact on the fascist occupiers, which in turn drew more enemy attention to the resistance itself; among the greatest heroes were those that piloted the Lysander planes that delivered supplies and rescued members that were about to be captured. But not everyone was rescued; a great many were tortured, then killed. Fourcade herself was arrested twice, and both times escaped.

If you had tried to write this woman’s story as fiction, critics would have said it lacked credibility.

In reading about Fourcade, I learned a great deal more about the Resistance than I had previously known; in other nonfiction reading this aspect of the Allied effort was always on the edges and in the shadows, not unlike the spies themselves. In addition, I also came to understand that France was barely, barely even a member of the Alliance. The British bombed a ship to prevent fascists from seizing it, but they didn’t evacuate it first, and an entire ship full of French sailors were killed, leading a large segment of the French population to hate the British more than the Germans. Then too, there was a sizable chunk of the French government that welcomed the fascists.

Revisionist histories will have us believe that the Nazis were opposed but that France was powerless to stop them, and for some that was true; yet the ugly truth is that it was the French themselves that incorporated anti-Semitism into their governmental structure before the Germans demanded it. Vichy cops had to take an oath “against Gaullist insurrection and Jewish leprosy.” When planning D-Day, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt didn’t even want to include the French in the planning or even inform them that the Allies were invading. Let them find out the same way that the Germans would, he suggested to Churchill. But the British insisted on bringing in friendly French within the orbit of De Gaulle, not to mention those around a pompous, difficult general named Henri Gouroud, a hero from World War I who had to be more or less tricked into meeting with the Allies at the Rock of Gibraltar. The guy was a real piece of work, and some of the humorous passages that are included to lighten up an otherwise intense story focus on him.

I have never read Olson’s work before, but the author’s note says that she writes about “unsung heroes—individuals of courage and conscience who helped change their country and the world but who, for various reasons, have slipped into the shadows of history.” Now that I’ve read her work once, I will look for it in the future.

Highly recommended to historians, feminists, and those that love a good spy story, too.

I learned a lot about Vichy France and the internal strife that rent the country and military apart. The actions of various Vichy officials, which went beyond mere acquiescing and straight into collaboration, was appalling and must have been infuriating for Alliance agents. The acknowledgement by MI6 of the suffering and danger that agents endured to gather intel was heartening. The satisfaction the agents must have felt when they knew that their work had helped pave the way for the Allied successful invasion and liberation of France can only be guessed. The anguish they felt at the hundreds of agents who were captured, tortured, imprisoned in horrendous conditions and killed before the Allies reached Germany was impossible to imagine.

The women who took part in intelligence work during WWII have had little coverage and accolades. Almost 20% of Alliance agents were women and Marie-Madelaine ran the agency for most of its existence. Initially some men were gobsmacked that a woman was la patronne but she soon set them straight about who was in charge. The toll on her emotionally as well as physically while working sixteen hour days was enormous but she was always thinking of and worrying about her agents, harrying MI6 for more supplies, and desperate to get the intel to those who were working to free France from her German invaders. Vive la France and long live the memory of Alliance.

Author Lynne Olson (Last Hope Island) specializes in bringing to life little known aspects of some of history's most powerful moments and Madame Fourcade's Secret War is a stellar addition. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade is a young woman who rebelled against not only the Nazis but also the generally accepted role of women as second class citizens to become a major part of French resistance movement during World War II. Fourcade's resistance network, Alliance, was the largest and most successful operation during German occupation of France and worked closely with MI6 during the entire war, attempting to stay out of politics and focus on freeing France at a time when so many other groups (both British and French) fought as hard against each other as they did against the Germans.

Fourcade recruited men and women from all parts of France and all walks of life into Alliance, which the Gestapo called Noah's Ark because all the members used the codenames of animals. Olson is able to recreate the very human elements of this time- from the early days of occupied Paris to the heartbreaking final months of the war. The reader feels Fourcade's triumphs, stresses, joys and sorrows as the spymaster known as "Hedgehog" tried to keep her people safely out of German hands. We learn the little known stories of agents who risked their lives to deliver detailed maps and crucial information to MI6- including much of the information that made the Allies D-Day landing on Normandy possible.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade might have been tailor made for the starring role in a new Hollywood spy movie or best-selling novel. But Lynne Olson has once again proven that history can be just as fascinating as fiction. Her clean, vibrant writing style adds no frills to a story that needs no embellishment. Her research and attention to detail mean that events speak for themselves and the reader can't help but be swept along on Fourcade;s fight for freedom.

A must-read for history lovers!

This book tells the story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade and the Alliance Resistance Network in France during World War II. It is an important book because it focuses on a female leader of a Resistance network, which has often been overlooked when studying the French Resistance during World War II. Although mainly focusing on Madame Fourcade, it tells the stories of other women and men (especially women), who contributed to efforts to resist the Nazis during the war. It also adds greater depth to the leadership conflicts during the war, such as those between De Gaulle and Girard, and demonstrates how many members of the Vichy government were willing to collaborate with the Nazis. Overall, this is an important historical book that adds greater context and nuance to French histories of World War II and the role of women in the war. I would recommend it to students who are interested in learning more about World War II.

What a fascinating woman! In a time when women barely held jobs, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade ran the largest espionage ring in France during WWII.

Olson does a fabulous job of giving you the background of the country that led to their poor showing when Germany invaded. I had no idea of the political turmoil France was dealing with. In fact, I learned more from this book about international politics leading up to the war than I ever knew before. Olson also provides the necessary background on the Vichy government and the political warfare between generals de Gaulle and Giraud. She knows exactly how much information to provide without bogging the reading down.

Olson keeps the book moving at a fast clip with short chapters. This nonfiction book read almost like a book of fiction. You get a true sense of the time and place. It’s a gripping book and some of the escapes would seem unbelievable if this were a book of fiction.

This book was eye opening. I was astounded by the number of people who risked their lives, many of whom had no training and most of whom died. As Olson writes at the very end of the book “they served as an example ...of what ordinary people can do...when faced with existential threats to basic human rights.”

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys history, even those who think they only enjoy historical fiction.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Thoroughly researched, yet personal, Madame Fourcade's Secret War is suspensfully paced and interesting to the end. I highly recommend it to all World War II enthusiasts.
I was provided and advance copy through #NetGalley

I read this in two days, though admittedly I was down with a new cold. I can’t imagine any book that could have kept me better company than this. I don’t know how Lynne Olson does it, write nonfiction that is as thrilling as a spy novel. I’m a big BBC fan which introduced me to the ladies of Bletchley Place, but where was this code and intel coming from? I never stopped to ask myself that.

It’s truly remarkable that a group of intelligence gathering volunteer citizens known as the Alliance was successfully led by a woman in a time when a woman’s role was to tend the home fires and raise children. Some recruits initially chafed at a female leader and quickly got over it. Her woman’s intuition saved her and others many times and her role remained uncontested until after the war when her biggest opponent was none other than Charles De Gaulle. Olson expresses frustration that after the war, the male members of the Alliance were acknowledge and rewarded, and the women were overlooked, in spite of their significant contributions. She admits that part of her motive in writing this book is to bring their contributions to light.

I’ve heard of Vichy France. Who hasn’t?! And I’ve read about it in context before, but I’ve never understood how it came to be and what it came to be, and it’s complicated! Patriotism and selfless sacrifice was required of the Alliance network as the agents grew to over a thousand French citizens, who provided M16 with movement of submarine and rail traffic, making them hated and targeted enemies of the Gestapo, and that’s complicated too.

Olson in her epilogue writes: “They served as an example from the past of what ordinary people can do in the present and future when faced with existential threat to basic human rights. As Jeannie Rousseau (volunteer) noted many years after the war, ‘Resistance is a state of mind. We can exercise it at any moment.’”

Lynne Olson is my new favorite history author. She writes like a dream. I was very excited to see her new book release. Lynne Olson has a clear winner with this one. This intense, nail biter of a story was a great read. I have read extensively on WWII but I learned so much from this work. It seems there were so many people with incredible courage during this time in history. It is inspiring to think of what they did and how it changed the world. Recommend this one highly! And ANYTHING and EVERYTHING from this author,.

Lynne Olson has written another very interesting book about WWII; this time concentrating on a top French intelligence group and the woman who led it. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was an upper crust Parisienne who lived a privileged life before the German's invaded in 1940. Unlike many of the French, Marie-Madeleine wanted to strike back at the German's from the very beginning. Her intelligence group which became know as the Alliance was started by Major Georges Loustaunau-Lacau (known as Navarre) a military man who threw his lot in with Petain in hopes of using that to his advantage to keep the British informed. Marie-Madeleine became his second in command and eventually in charge of the group.
As with all of Lynne Olson's histories, this is a book with a wealth of detail and personalities who were part of World War II history. One thing that comes across in all of her books is how different life was living through this war versus looking back at it. The people made their decisions in the moment and for all the good decisions that turned out well were the many that did not. In the author's last book, Last Hope Island, I became more aware of how much infighting there was between the Allies (and within the intelligence services even from the same country). This book reinforces how much political division there was in France not only before the war but especially during the war and afterwards. As the author writes in this book, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was unique as a woman head of an intelligence service as well as her ability to create and re-create a group that was a vital part of the Allies ability to successfully fight Nazi Germany.

Don’t you just love non-fiction books that read like fiction? I know I do. This is the amazing story of a woman who runs a spy network in France during the Second World War. Always on the move and changing identities she and her cohorts manage to feed crucial information to the allies. Initially keeping the fact that she is a woman secret from MI5, she gains their respect, becoming one of their most invaluable resources. Woven into the tales of gathering information and getting it out of France are the details of how one creates a spy network, how one protects it and the heart break when the protection fails. This is an inspiring book about the heroism of everyday people.

I'm continuously in awe when I read accounts of ordinary men and women doing these extraordinary, courageous acts despite the dangers facing them. This book provides an in-depth look at one of the most successful underground French intelligence networks during WWII, Alliance. Even cooler is that it was run by a woman - Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. Truly incredible to hear about the work of the Alliance members, as well as the numerous citizens who put their lives on the line too to help them.

There are several historical fiction books that deal with resistance/spy networks during this time period, but they typically skim over the full historical background and context. This book provided that missing element which I loved. It is a work of nonfiction, however it reads like a novel. I think it would be a great read for history fans and historical fiction fans alike.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

An eye opening read a moment in history a spy network in France led by a woman.Espionage danger a true heroine.For all lovers of history,strong women this is the book for you.Highly recommend..

Madame Fourcarde's Secret War is the story of a brave woman. I've noticed a trend of the stories about amazing women doing dangerous activities during WWII finally being told. This Parisian woman ran an underground network to help the allied forces. She was incredible. Her story is well written and researched. It's a great read, especially if you love historical fiction. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I continue to be amazed at how much there is discover about the resilience and courage of ordinary people. Those who took an active part in gathering and sharing information about the Germans during World War II were so fearless and bold. They were not willing to stand by and let evil flourish. Madame Fourcade defied all stereotypes to lead an organization that was vital to the Allies in their campaigns to defeat the Third Reich. She was a true patriot in every sense of the word. This is a great story that needed to be told. The members of the Alliance network deserve to be honored and remembered for their deeds and sacrifices. Thanks to all of them, we can pursue our dreams for a better life.

The story of a brave wealthy Parisienne willing to give her life for her country. It reads like a part documentary and part espionage. Readers will no doubt be shocked by the way France demeaned the importance of women. To their shame.