CODE NAME MADELEINE

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.