Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in Nazi-Occupied Paris

by Arthur J. Magida

Overview

A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Book of 2020
A Padma Lakshmi Favorite Read of 2021

The captivating story of the valiant Noor Inayat Khan, daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic and unlikely World War II heroine.

Raised in a lush suburb of 1920s Paris, Noor Inayat Khan was an introspective musician and writer, dedicated to her family and to her father’s spiritual values of harmony, beauty, and tolerance. She did not seem destined for wartime heroism. Yet, faced with the evils of Nazi violence and the German occupation of France, Noor joined the British Special Operations Executive and trained in espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. She returned to Paris under an assumed identity immediately before the Germans mopped up the Allies’ largest communications network in France. For crucial months of the war, Noor was the only wireless operator there sending critical information to London, significantly aiding the success of the Allied landing on D-Day. Code-named Madeleine, she became a high-value target for the Gestapo. When she was eventually captured, Noor attempted two daring escapes before she was sent to Dachau and killed just months before the end of the war.

Carefully distilled from dozens of interviews, newly discovered manuscripts, official documents, and personal letters, Code Name Madeleine is both a compelling, deeply researched history and a thrilling tribute to Noor Inayat Khan, whose courage and faith guided her through the most brutal regime in history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393867558
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	254,867
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Arthur J. Magida is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Nazi Séance and The Rabbi and the Hit Man. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Prelude The Moon Goddess 1

Part 1 The Rising

Chapter 1 The Air of Heaven 13

Chapter 2 Never Be a "Naughty Girly" 27

Chapter 3 "This Is Not Good for Your Health" 45

Chapter 4 The Road Is Weeping 55

Part 2 "Our Cheers Are Going All Over England"

Chapter 5 The Bloody World's on Fire 73

Chapter 6 A Thing No Human Could Face with Anything but Terror 85

Chapter 7 "I Am a Busy Little Girl Now" 91

Chapter 8 "I Have Gained My Subjects' Freedom" 108

Part 3 The Power and the Glory

Chapter 9 The Business Is Underway 121

Chapter 10 The Joy of Sacrifice 134

Chapter 11 "I Need Trees" 147

Chapter 12 A Date at Le Colisée 155

Chapter 13 "When I See You Again, It Will Be after the War" 177

Part 4 In the World of No World

Chapter 14 "Madeleine, Don't Be Silly. You Will Kill Yourself" 189

Chapter 15 Sacred Honor 206

Chapter 16 The Realm of Ghosts 214

Chapter 17 Gethsemane and Golgotha 224

Afterword "I Pray with Noor" 239

Acknowledgments 261

For Further Reading 263

Notes 267

Illustration Credits 307

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

"An engrossing tale of an amazing woman and her immense courage in the face of evil."

Alex Kershaw

"[Code Name Madeleine] sheds new light on a heroine.… Her plight mirrors our own times."

Guardian - Dalya Alberge

"A missing chapter of the annals of World War II. [Code Name Madeleine] highlights the still underappreciated role women played in defeating Hitler. A rare and rich treat!"

Kati Marton

"What a story this is. Magida tells it very well."

Jon M. Sweeney magazine

"Noor Inayat Khan is a woman for our age: a true heroine who faced down evil when she saw it and sacrificed her life for the cause of freedom. Arthur J. Magida’s biography is both a thrilling spy story and a moving portrait of her courage."

Amanda Foreman

"Captures the spirit of this very courageous woman who was not designed for wartime heroism."

San Francisco KALW-FM

"An absolutely gripping book. Noor Inayat Khan is brought alive in a way no one else has been able to do."

Lynne Olson

"What a story this is. Magida tells it very well."

Jon M. Sweeneyn Magazine

"Thanks to the dexterous work of Arthur Magida, Noor Inayat Khan finally takes her rightful place in world history. Free-spirited, glamorous, devout—embodying a life of mysticism and the arts—the only Indian woman spy fighting fascism in the golden age of Euro-American spying."

Ruby Lal

"An intimate and compelling portrait of the most extraordinary undercover agent of World War II. Noor Inayat Khan’s story is one of courage, heroism, and tragedy: Magida’s fascinating biography delves deep into the life of this devout Sufi woman whose moral imperative was to fight fascism at all costs—even if that meant putting herself in mortal danger."

Giles Milton

"What a story this is. Magida tells it very well."

American Magazine - Jon M. Sweeney

06/01/2020

Drawing on primary and secondary source material, as well as interviews and archival research, Magida (The Rabbi and the Hit Man; The Nazi Séance) documents the life of Noor Inayat Khan (1914–44). Posthumously awarded the highest civilian honor in the UK, Khan was a British spy and lesser-known unsung hero of World War II. The daughter of an Indian mystic and an American poet who lived in Moscow and Paris before escaping to England as war broke out, Khan joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and was later recruited by Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," aka the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Known by the Allies and Nazis alike as "Madeleine," she served as a wireless radio operator in occupied France and was instrumental in rebuilding a shattered Resistance network before her capture, torture, and execution at age 30. Magida here fills in the details of Noor's life and death, as well as those of auxiliary family members and others, while moving her narrative to its suspenseful conclusion. VERDICT A vivid and engaging biography recommended for readers of World War II history and women's studies.—Linda Frederiksen, formerly with Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver

Library Journal

2020-03-25
A singular World War II tale highlights the bravery of a Sufi mystic’s daughter who sacrificed a peaceful life in France to become a secret agent for the British during the war.

Magida fashions a highly original biography of the short, brave life of Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944), who became a radio operator for the British in her late 20s and was dropped into France as a spy in the summer of 1943. It is a sad and harrowing story of a young woman with a steely will and strong sense of family honor who was eagerly incorporated into wartime service by the British Special Operations Executive, perhaps due to her mixed upbringing and perfect French—even though one official noted that she was “sensitive, somewhat dreamy.” Magida spends a substantial, fascinating portion of the narrative exploring Khan’s unusual upbringing in the suburbs of Paris, where her father, a renowned Indian-born Sufi mystic teacher and musician, taught his international pupils and disciples. Noor’s mother, Ora, was the sister of the notorious self-styled yogi Pierre Bernard. By the author’s account, Noor’s upbringing was spiritually oriented, literary, and sheltered, and the family was uprooted when her father died. Noor, who trained as a musician as well, was closest to her mother and younger brother, Vilayat. Joining the exodus to England when the Nazis invaded in June 1940, the siblings, nonviolent rather than pacifist, had to decide how best to aid the war effort. Noor enlisted and trained in wireless telegraphy. While courageous, “direct…forthright and no pushover,” and “used to being underestimated,” Noor (spy name Madeleine) unfortunately disregarded some important rules of the secret agent, such as not contacting anyone she had known before the war, and her movements caught the attention of the Gestapo. She was imprisoned and eventually executed at Dachau.

A harrowing thriller in which a young woman’s “joy of sacrifice” turned to tragedy. (37 illustrations)

Kirkus Reviews