Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Spy

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Paulo Coelho

Narrator: Hillary Huber, Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-16

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 216 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, best-selling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history's most enigmatic women: Mata Hari. The story of her celebrated yet mysterious life as an exotic dancer and courtesan, and her controversial execution as a spy during the First World War, unfolds as a fascinating first-person narrative of self-creation and bravery.

Her only crime was to be an independent woman: "I do not know if the future will remember me, but if it should, may no one ever view me as a victim but as someone who moved forward with courage and paid the price she had to pay."

On the occasion of the centenary of Mata Hari's execution for espionage in 1917, Paulo Coelho reconsiders her life and character in a fictional memoir. In a series of letters written from prison on the eve of her death, Mata Hari reflects on the choices she has made to always pursue her own truth - from her childhood in a small Dutch town to unhappy years as the wife of an alcoholic diplomat in Java to her calculated and self-fashioned rise to celebrity in Paris and across Europe as an exotic dancer and confidante to the most powerful men of the time. Though there was little evidence to incriminate her, Mata Hari was unable to escape persecution and prosecution by French military intelligence, and at the novel's end Coelho re-creates a final letter, written by Mata Hari's lawyer, Edouard Clunet, that offers a captivating view of Europe at war and the fatal price of suspicion.

Members Reviews:

Strong woman versus the patriarchy

The strong woman wins, of course, by living her life on her terms. The story is told in two voices: first the woman herself and then her male (and only) ally. I found the the woman character and her first-person narrative engaging (and a refutation to anyone who would say that a male novelist should not write as a woman). The historical setting is well rendered as a time of cataclysmic change, dangerous for everyone. Our heroine does not flinch.

Not what I thought the story would be.

the story was sad and depressing to hear about a woman having to use her body to get her freedom. But she was never free, she ended up being smited by the same men that desired her. Lets pray that this type of story will soon be historical info instead of fodder for a new screenplay.

Not what I expect from Paulo Coellho

Any additional comments?

One of my least favorite books by the author and I'm a huge fan of his. Though it was a nice entertaining book, it was not as though provoking as his other works.

Highly recommended

Great narration. Meticulous detailing of facts and documents and final, just exoneration of a wrongly-accused. Heartbreaking and very timely.

Loved the Alchemist but this falls short

I just never could get into the main character enough to care about her retelling of her life