The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

By: Simon Mawer

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

The wonderful new novel from the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Glass Room is both a gripping adventure story and a moving meditation on patriotism, betrayal and the limits of love.

Marian Sutro is an outsider: the daughter of a diplomat, half French, half British, naive yet too clever for her own good. But when she is recruited from her desk job by SOE to go undercover in wartime France, it seems her hybrid status - and fluent French - will be of service to a greater, more dangerous cause. Trained in sabotage, dead-drops, how to perform under interrogation, and how to kill, Marian parachutes into southwest France with an urgent mission....

©2012 Simon Mawer (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"The Girl Who Fell from the Sky comes from a long and glorious tradition of spy novels that you just can't put down. It's taut fiction at it's best." (Stylist)

The "hook" is missing

Any additional comments?

The book got many great reviews and I was looking forward to a story about covert operations in World War II. There were some interesting sections on the training of operatives, but it felt more like a romance in a wartime setting - with neither angle being developed in much depth. The story is a bit thin and predictable. I listened to the end because the narrator was really good .

good read

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

good story, but finished very abruptly, just as I was begining to enjoy it

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

the training of these spy agent prior to work,
least interesting was the finish

What three words best describe Anna Bentinck’s performance?

enjoyed the reading