A Mystic's daughter flees Moscow on the eve of the Great War.

A French soldier lies wounded on the Western Front.

A German officer veers between loyalty and integrity.

An English courtesan reclines on a sea of books.

Each will make a journey that changes history.

The constellations will force the Mystic's daughter to make an impossible choice. To remain at her harp as the shadow of the war looms again – or join the top-secret Special Operations Executive (SOE). Bābouli to her Sufi father, Madeleine to the Gestapo, a lone mission to Occupied Paris promises to be the most hazardous of World War Two.

Inspired by real events, Codename: Madeleine is the most unexpected spy story ever told. It teems with tigers, zeppelins, elephants, U-boats, angels, assassins, chessmen, cyanide, beetles, butterflies and Rumi. Revolving between Paris, London, Prague, India and Latin America, Codename: Madeleine is a kaleidoscope of love, war, music, betrayal, poetry and resistance.

Olivia Williams

Stem