In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history's most enigmatic women: Mata Hari.
HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN
When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city.
As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she bewitched the era’s richest and most powerful men.
But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari’s lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees, and accused of espionage.
Told in Mata Hari’s voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to defy convention and who paid the ultimate price.
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
