I found this book a fascinating read as a picture of the work of the Special Operations Executive. Our heroine is Marian Sutro, a 19 year old bilingual Engish girl who's spent much of her life in France. She's recruited to the SOE in 1943, and after training will form part of the Resistance in France. It becomes clear that her special task will be to make contact with an old family friend, Clement Pelletier, who is a nuclear physicist in Paris. Her training, her growing sexual awareness, her tasks as she arrives first of all in rural south west France and then in Paris are all excitingly described. I found her adventures, her feelings, the picture of Paris under German occupation all involving and believable. How should she behave when nobody is to be trusted, when everyone she meets might turn out to be shadowing or following her? Mawer's descriptions of suspicion and claustrophobia, of hardship and deprivation are moving and involving. Only Marion's unexpected action in the last few pages of the novel failed to hit the right note, but the ending itself was convincing. A well researched and exciting book. ( )

An exciting story about an adventurous and brave young woman who joins the Special Operations Executive during World War II and gets dropped into France during the occupation. The story hits some of the usual beats: the recruitment by a mysterious and secret organization, the training, the possible love interest, but once our heroine is parachuted into France the story becomes unpredictable and exciting.

As a realistic view of heroism under pressure, of a heroine for our times, of an imperfect but determined secret agent, this is a wonderful book.

I highly recommend it. ( )

Inspired by the exploits of the women who left Britain to help the French resistance fighters in the Second World War, Mawer has written a story that lives up to their achievements. In a wholly absorbing novel, he traces the career of Marian Sutro through her recruitment and training, before she parachutes into the French countryside. Mawer’s skill is to capture the boredom, excitement, fear and heartaches as Marian grows through her successive experiences and identities. He also contrasts the different lives of those in Britain with those in the French provinces and Paris, making for a fascinating book that envelops the reader and is full of peril and adventure, leading to a nail-biting climax.

It is the second world war and Marion who is in the services is selected by SOE as she can speak fluent French. She is a little reluctant to join at first, but decides that she will. She joins the commandos on their training course with one other woman, and passes with flying colours. After a couple of other courses, including getting her wings, she is ready for her first assignment in France.

She is approached by another secret organisation that want her to meet with an old flame called Clement in Paris. he is working on atomic research, and the British want him to defect. She is parachuted into France, with a man called Benoit and is met by the resistance and is immersed into the local community awaiting the call from London. Shortly after that, she gets the call and she is to delivery some crystals to another agent in Paris.

She meets the other agent in Paris, Yvette, who is living in terror as she thinks her cover is blown, and meets with Clement. She is slightly shocked to find that he is married now, but starts trying to persuade him to come to the UK. As the Nazi authorities close in on her, she realises that every wrong step could be fatal.

Overall is isn't a bad spy thriller. It is loosely based on a female spy called Anne-Marie, who was active during the Nazi occupation of France. It is a little predictable at times, and the beginning is quite slow paced whilst she undergoes training. The pace really does lift at the end, but it doesn't have the subtlety and darker elements that some one like Le Carre has. Ok, but not great.



( )

Prague Spring much better. Kind of boring with all the scientific jargon. Heroine did not have much of a spark. No "star" quality. . As always I wonder why she didn't dye her hair, cut it off, dress like a boy etc. But then, it would have been a different story. Skimmed last 20 pages. ( )

I liked this alot - more than The Glass House which was interesting but ponderous. This has spies and sex and Paris! What's not to like? ( )

Good historical fiction. Suspenseful. ( )

A very good WW2 spy novel that reads with lots of suspense. Well developed characters create a story that is both dynamic and engrossing. I definitely will be reading the next book in the series. Highly recommended. ( )

I’ve read some of all the espionage masters — Le Carré, Greene, Littell — but don’t remember ever reading a book with a female spy as the lead. When I encountered The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, with a cover blurb from Alan Massie that said “As good as le Carré”, I had to try it.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

Marian Sutro is a young woman, half British and half French, with a command of French, a taste for adventure, and a restlessness that makes her jump at a chance for an unspecified, clandestine opportunity to help Britain in the war (World War II). Before she knows it she is in training as a spy, jumping out of airplanes, and exploring her first fumbling experiences of sex. And Marian turns out to have a taste and a talent for firearms.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is much more in the vein of Alan Furst than Le Carré. There’s little in the way of the moral ambiguity or the creeping sense that there aren’t any good guys or bad guys, just shades of grey, the calling card of Le Carré. Rather, this is WWII and the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good, if a bit unfussy about methods. The first half of the book is leisurely — it’s not until halfway through that Marian finally graduates from training and does a parachute jump into the French countryside. There are a lot of atmospherics, which makes one think of Furst, capturing the sense of wartime, even as events themselves move slowly. But the second half of the book accelerates, the tension rises, and Marian’s recklessness increases. The rendering of a female spy who is reckless to the point of irrationality, but is still a believable character, is something unique I don’t think I’ve encountered in the dozens of espionage novels I’ve read.

I really enjoyed this book (although “as good as Le Carré” is over stating things) — I’m very much looking forward to Tightrope, the sequel.

(Note: The Girl Who Fell from the Sky was published in the UK; it appeared in the US under the title Trapeze — not sure why they ditched such an awesome title). ( )

I appreciate the author’s obvious research into WWII in France, the Resistance movement, and women in SOE operations. I really got into the danger of the situations and the intensity of the secretive and suspenseful events. That intensity is vital to spy thrillers and Mawer delivers here. I especially liked some of the details in how Marian performed her Resistance work like delivering the radio crystals. Clever!

I did find it a bit hard to connect with Marian, though. I found her cold and distant at times. Given some of the situations she was in and the circumstances of the world at the time, I guess I could see where she might keep her emotions buttoned down. But far too often I had to wonder at her calm reserve.

Also, let me just say….. Holy crap, that ending!!! My brain imploded when I read the last few paragraphs and not in a good way. It’s a MASSIVE cliffhanger and one that has no foreshadowing that it was coming (at least to my piddlely little brain). I hate when books do this, especially with no indication that a follow up book will be coming down the tailpipe. The book lost a star right there.

Mawer does a great job in bringing Nazi-occupied France to life and making us live the struggle for freedom and liberation. The main character is hard at times to connect with, portraying a cold exterior. But I think that could be due to the time and circumstances. But that ending…. Oy vey!! Just be forewarned going in that you’ll be tempted to chuck the book at the wall. So not a bad read but not the best either. ( )

"Trapeze" (US title, the more appealing Brit title is "The Girl Who Fell from the Sky"), and I enjoyed it very much. It's 1943, Marian in her very early 20's is fluent in French and recruited by the Brits for some work in France. Good writing - Mawer was short-listed for a Booker a few years ago - good story-telling and plenty of tension. "Trapeze" came in at about 370 pages, "Tightrope" about 517, and I will tackle it in the spring. Hopefully Mawer will write a third whose title doesn't begin with "T" and is not a circus word.

If Hitchcock had done serials, he would have loved the ending of "Trapeze" and used it somewhere....I finished "Trapeze" the same night I watched the end of the 1/9/16 Steelers-Bengals playoff game where the Steelers won after Cincinnati had the lead, the ball, a first-down, less than two minutes to play, and the injured Steeler QB on the bench. I would say that the "Trapeze" ending was more stunning. ( )

I was given the sequel, Tightrope, to this book but hadn't read this one so I wanted to get to it first, and I'm quite glad I did. As Hitler tries to take over the world, this young woman is recruited in England to be part of an espionage network, dangerous work to say the least. And at first, it seems like it will be a bit of a lark.

The story moved along rapidly, with lots of interesting characters. I especially appreciated the bits of history women into the story, and found the parts about the development of the atomic bomb to be fascinating. The ethics of war, what is right, what is wrong even during war, is part of the story. That this is a fictionalized about of real women involved in this undercover work made it all the better.

This story ended on a cliffhanger, and while the book was satisfying in itself, I can't wait to dig into Tightrope. ( )

I found this book disappointing. I was expecting a dramatic, tense thriller with a daring and loveable heroine, and got a dull, by the numbers WWII story with a protagonist who, frankly, I don't think I would care to spend 5 minutes in the same room with. She comes across as a rather selfish, nihilistic person, who uses others for her own purposes. I wasn't really interested in her romantic life, such as it was, she was carrying a torch for someone she hadn't seen for donkey's years, and the only interesting relationship in her life was with her brother. I just wanted a lot more action. There was a modicum of suspense, as is to be expected in Occupied France, but excitement was distinctly lacking. I have gotten hold of the sequel, which deals with the Cold war, and I'm hoping Marian has grown up a little bit and there some decent spy antics. ( )

A story of WW2 spies, specifically Marriane Sutro. The story is a little slow with not much suspense and a fairly predictable ending. Mildly entertaining, but never lives up to it's back cover promise ( )

London WWII: Would you be willing to risk your life to help stop the Nazis?

Marian Sutro would. Being bilingual, she is recruited to for a special mission—to train in espionage and aid the French Resistance. Once her training is complete she is airdropped into the French countryside and eventually makes her way into Paris on a secret mission. Working in intelligence is tough; never knowing who or what might be waiting around the corner for you. Whom do you trust? Yvette, a classmate from training in Scotland, Benoit, a good looking Frenchman or Clement, an old family friend living and working in Paris?

While I did find some of the plot predictable it kept me wondering what would happen next, hoping for a twist or more interaction between certain characters…unfortunately it did not come. I wish there had been more development between Marian and one of the two main male characters; I do not think their story lived up to potential. Overall, the book piqued my interest but I felt a bit let down at the end. Good book but a bit unsurprising… ( )

This is a book about self determination. It covers a subject visited already by other authors - Ian McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' is an example - concerning the training, deployment and adventures of a female British spy in WWII. Perhaps inevitably, the plot is driven by questions concerning the blurring of lines between desire and duty, and all this is kind of cliched - but the writing has a hard clarity and the female lead is a realistically drawn human being. The choices she makes, and why she makes them, are the real interest of the book and this makes the ending especially work well. ( )

This one was interesting, it was about a young woman who was taken from a desk job during WW2 and trained to be an undercover agent and then dropped by parachute to work in occupied France, passing messages, retrieving information and working to get key individuals out of the country. She retains a certain naivete throughout. I could pick faults in some aspects of the story, but I won't because overall it was a good one. ( )

Another engaging period novel that I am glad I gave the full 50 pages to and did not give up on. Story about an English girl recruited to become a spy in France (where her family is from and where a former flame (her older brother's friend and a scientist working on the a-bomb) lives and works). Really conveys the feeling of training to be a spy and then the paranoia of being one...the German police could be anywhere! I liked the way her relationships with Benoit and Clement were portrayed, but I am not sure how to respond to the twist at the end--depressing, but perhaps fitting. ( )

As with other reviewers, I was pulled in by the premise but then left disappointed. I felt Mawer did manage to crank up the tension, but I'm not sure that was due to his writing or just because I was anticipating the ending - which was predictable. ( )

A young Anglo-French woman is selected by the British to become a spy in France during World War II. Her language-skills are important, but her former contacts with a French scientist seem to be crucial. After weeks of harsh training in Scotland, she's sent off to France and tries to do what she's asked to do. In between, she tires to control her love-life.
The premise looked promising but unfortunately, the book could not impress me. Characters were flat, apart from Marian / aka Anne-Marie / aka Laurence / aka Alice who didn't convince me at all. I didn't find this book exciting or interesting. In fact I thought it a bit erratic. And the end felt as if the author suddenly got bored, was ordered to stop at 300 pages or decided to make it a prequel to a series. No, I'm sorry, I've read better books. ( )

The premise for this book - female spy during WWII - is a good one, but I was disappointed overall with its telling, primarily because of the lack of character development given to the protagonist Marian Sutro. While we know she is bright and bilingual the only other aspect of her personality that appeared to be developed was her discovering the difference between first crush and early love and the losing of her virginity, which seemed more coming of age than related to being a female spy. The plot in terms of her mission was okay. The ending was predictable. ( )

Marian Sutro is fluently bilingual in English and French, and sufficiently young and naïve to be somewhat fearless. Recruited by the mysterious “Inter-Services Research Bureau”, she is trained in espionage and deployed to Nazi-occupied Paris. Left largely in the dark regarding the nature and details of her primary mission, she is secretly approached by a second agency and enlisted to convince an ex-boyfriend and prominent physicist to return to London and assist the Allies in their nuclear ambitions.

I was drawn to this book by Mawer’s interesting choice of subject, inspired by the select group of female British field agents who worked behind enemy lines during WWII. While I enjoyed the book as a light read, aspects of it were disappointing. I found it difficult to care much about the characters as individuals, although they were generally sympathetic as operatives in a plot-based thriller. I was put-off by the inclusion of a romantic element that at times felt schmaltzy, overdone, and geared to a popular fiction genre, while adding little to the literary merit of the story. For me, the narrative also lacked the depth and tension that the subject matter deserved, and the ending was fairly predictable.

This was the first of Mawer’s books that I have read and I will likely revisit this author, as I own The Glass Room and a few others of his books look interesting. But I will approach them with a different set of expectations than I brought to Trapeze.

I didn't finish this book as I started to lose interest when the main character and her brother began discussing the science between atomic bombs! Up until then it had been quite interesting. ( )

I loved this. I stayed up late reading the last ~100 pages or so. This is a novel based on the British women who were recruited as spies and dropped into France during WW2. We open with our protagonist, Marian Sutro, a 19yo diplomat's daughter, is about to parachute from a noisy plane into a random field in the night of occupied France.

As with 'The Glass Room,' Mawer's prose is somehow simple, but elegant and affecting. His story-telling is traditional, yet magical. I will not spoil - but the ending was fabulous. This novel is more story and less introspection than 'The Glass Room,' but still much of what he writes about fear, identity, physics was very thought-provoking.

I feel like I should have more to say since I am rating this book so highly but I really don't. SImply the best type of reading experience in my opinion - plot, prose, story-telling, setting - all without seeming Hollywoodish or melodramatic. Bravo. Mawer is on his way to becoming a favorite of mine. ( )

Story about a woman born in France that served as spy for England during the run up to WW 2. Lots of detail about training of a spy. Completed the whole thing.
Also talked about the development of the nucluear bomb. ( )