“An extraordinary profile of immense courage and daring.”—Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Left Cuba “If you only read one WWII book this year, make it this one.”—Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Orphans In the depths of war, she would defy the odds to help liberate a nation…a gripping historical novel based on the remarkable true … defy the odds to help liberate a nation…a gripping historical novel based on the remarkable true story of World War II heroine Virginia Hall, from the bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl
France, March 1944. Virginia Hall wasn’t like the other young society women back home in Baltimore—she never wanted the debutante ball or silk gloves. Instead, she traded a safe life for adventure in Europe, and when her beloved second home is thrust into the dark days of war, she leaps in headfirst.
Once she’s recruited as an Allied spy, subverting the Nazis becomes her calling. But even the most cunning agent can be bested, and in wartime trusting the wrong person can prove fatal. Virginia is haunted every day by the betrayal that ravaged her first operation, and will do everything in her power to avenge the brave people she lost.
While her future is anything but certain, this time more than ever Virginia knows that failure is not an option. Especially when she discovers what—and whom—she’s truly protecting.
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The Invisible Woman is THE book for current times. The bigger-than-life heroine, Virginia Hall, and her band of Resistance fighters are ripped from the history books and put into glorious technicolor by talented author Erika Robuck. As a WW2 super-spy and French Resistance leader, Hall’s sacrifices, courage, and endurance — all done with a prosthetic leg improbably named “Cuthbert” — was instrumental in expelling the Nazis from France. With gripping prose that brings the terror of war onto the pages, and highlights the selflessness of ordinary people fighting together for a cause, The Invisible Woman should be required reading for everyone today.
A gripping, tense book that shows the courage and steel of real-life spy Virginia Hall. I couldn’t put this book down!
In this captivating, page-turning read, the talented Erika Robuck plunges her readers deep into the little-known, critical espionage undertaken by the brilliant and brave spy Virginia Hall during World War II. The Invisible Woman shines a light on this courageous historical woman, whose pioneering work as an agent deserves recognition.
A alpha female heroine, along with an engaging plot loaded with realism, makes for a captivating historical thriller. Even better, it’s all drawn from the life of a real American hero.
Robuck hit the sweet spot of accessible literary writing with an elevated prose that pulls the reader along on an enlightening and increasingly exciting journey. Virginia Hall, “the invisible woman,” is one who deserves a book like this, and Robuck honors her with intense research, thoughtful story writing, and respectful humility. WWII historical fiction seems to have no limits, and The Invisible Woman proves this by amplifying the story of a spy, her colleagues, and the people they sacrificed to protect, none of whom should ever be forgotten. I would recommend this book to book clubs and historical fiction lovers.
This was my first book by Erika Robuck and will not be my last. I look forward to many more.
My favorite line from this book is: “My name is Virginia Hall.”
WOW! This book was so good. I’ve not read a historical fiction book like this before. It has enough truth in it to make it great and enough fiction to work its magic. Though it is very sad in parts it’s also very inspiring. The main character, Virginia, is a very strong female. She takes nothing from anyone if she can help it. She’s fierce and a force in the job she does. She demands respect and gets it. She radiates strength. Even with one leg….
This book starts out with a group of young women about to start college. It is light hearted and grabs you. It then jumps to the war and all that is happening in the country Virginia loves. Though she is from America, she loves France. She considers it her home. Her heart. She will and does do anything and everything she can to make it safe again. As a resistance fighter, Virginia becomes a fast and strong woman. She fights for what she believes in and takes not prisoners so to speak. She goes through a lot and does all she can to help the people in her care. From each place she is sent she makes friends. She is well respected and loved by these people she is leading to freedom. Bringing them supplies and teaching them so much. I admire this woman and what she goes through.
This book brought me to tears in many places. It also added a few chuckles along the way. But most of all it had me in awe. I was fully in awe of the resistance fighters in this story. What they did to help. The many ways they fought to bring the Nazis down. This book just made me see things that I forgot about learning in school. The sadness in hearing about the many people who were almost dead from starvation. From being kept in prison camps. Though this book did not go into that a lot it did touch on it and it’s awful what happened. I hope people learned from this war. I hope they won’t ever let this history be repeated.
From the towns and streets of Paris to the hidden areas in the middle of a wooded area you will find out things that happened. How people banned together to stop a group of horrible Nazis. This story is told in a way that will keep you turning the pages long into the night. One you will not want to put down. The “afterword” and the “What became of Virginia’s Network” are very interesting also. Be sure and read that at the end. So much is told in those few paragraphs. Some of it made me break down again as I felt like I knew these people. They became like friends in many ways. Relatable and real. The descriptions are so well written that you will have many feelings.
Such a good book!!
Thank you to #NetGalley, #ErikaRobuck, #BerkleyPublishingGroup, #PenguinRandomHouse, #TheInvisibleWoman for this ARC… These are my own true thoughts about this book.
5/5 huge stars and a very high recommendation.
I had sky-high hopes for Robuck’s take on WWII superspy Virginia Hall, and she still managed to exceed them. The way Robuck structures and executes on this story cranks up the tension and keeps your heart in your throat as you turn every page. An absolute must-read for historical fiction fans.
I can’t believe we haven’t heard more about Virginia Hall until now! What a gritty, determined, tenacious character she was. Robuck’s well-researched story put me right there in those barren villages, the hunger and desperation of the French, hollow eyes, and yet they chose to resist no matter what it cost. You feel Virginia’s torment as she doggedly walks along with her prosthetic leg to the next village to organize and arm the next group of resistance fighters, dragging with her the demons that come with watching people she’s trained be captured and tortured. I had no idea that the allies trained and equipped French civilians to rise up and throw the Nazis out of their country, but I shouldn’t be. Or that BBC read out code at the end of their programming to communicate with the field. I didn’t want this story to end, even though I wished for the end of the war. This is one of those untold stories. A must, must read.
Let me say that my 3 star rating has nothing to do with the heroine of this historical fiction. Virginia Hall Goillot, The Limping Lady, was brave, courageous and a true hero in the French Resistance during World War II.
Virginia was born into a wealthy American family, and traveled and studied extensively in Europe. After completing her education, she took a position with the U.S. Embassy in Poland, and then a position in Turkey. While in Turkey, a hunting accident resulted in the loss of her left leg below the knee. She received a prosthetic leg, which she called Cuthbert. Virginia joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and was stationed in France. She ran a spy ring, and when they were compromised she needed to escape as the Gestapo were hunting her. She crossed the Pyrenees from France to Spain, on foot with Cuthbert. That’s over 11,000 ft. in the snow and wind. It is harrowing to even imagine. Once she reached Spain, she was arrested and sent to prison. Upon her release from prison, she returned to France, gathering intelligence, managing Maquis resistance and organizing supply drops.
Virginia was one incredible woman! So why didn’t I like the book more? It took off with a bang, but didn’t keep that momentum. While Virginia and her story held my attention, the telling of her story never drew me in to Virginia’s character at all. Yes, she was portrayed as brave, courageous, strong and daring, but she was portrayed flatly and her emotions never quite jumped off the page. Also, the story was told in present with flashbacks to the past, however, the transitions were unconnected. It just seemed like bits and pieces thrown together without any logical thread tying everything together. I kept reading because I wanted to know Virginia’ story.
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A complex and nuanced historical novel with an unforgettable heroine.
Her nom de guerre is Diane, but she is Virginia Hall, a young modern and affluent American studying in Paris in 1926 when she is introduced in the novel The Invisible Woman. She is daring, going to see Josephine Baker sing bare-breasted, and feisty, whacking her boyfriend when he kisses another girl at a party. Jump forward to March, 1944, Virginia’s gaiety is gone as she makes her way toward Haute-Loire, France, accompanied by Cuthbert, her prosthetic leg, on a mission to “unleash hell on the Nazis.” In wartime France as an SOE/OSS agent, Virginia chooses the name Diane, picked to spite the Nazis who’d called her Artemis, the Greek goddess equivalent to the Roman’s goddess Diane. The Gestapo also called her “the Limping Lady.”
The plot of the novel is fast paced. The reader stays on the edge of her seat during every airdrop Diane arranges, every coded message she sends, and every Nazi checkpoint she must pass as she moves deeper into France. The characters are well developed through a third person narrative written from Diane’s point of view. The narrative technique is skillfully employed by the author to make the danger real and convey the heartbreak suffered by members of the French Resistance when one of their members, often a spouse or relative, is captured or killed. Interwoven into the story are many flashbacks that tell Virginia’s story: her childhood summers at Box Horn Farm in America, where as she got older she had the nickname “Dindy,” her “lightning-fast romance” with Emil in the 1930s, and the accident in Smyrna in 1933 when her leg must be amputated. The last is a turning point in the story, not directly related to the war but significant in that it made Virginia into the determined woman who later became a heroine.
The characters in The Invisible Woman are brilliantly crafted and make the novel a literary work. They are sometimes as reckless as they are brave, and they are emotionally complex, revealing as Diane interacts with them the fears and sorrows in their lives, and giving testament to the atrocities inflicted upon them by the Germans. As the story moves forward, D-Day looms, “The long sobs of the violins of autumn,” and arrives, when the “heart is drowned in the slow sound, languorous and long.” Then the German barbarity explodes, the actions and characters so monstrous that one must put down the book occasionally to take a breath, as if looking away from the horrible carnage depicted in a movie. The monsters, unforgettably described, are Anton Haas, the German MP, an early pursuer of the Limping Lady, and Robert Alesch, the haughty priest with “ice-blue eyes” and “doughy white skin,” who betrayed the Resistance for the Gestapo’s money. And then, finally, comes the story’s zenith, brought by a Jedburgh named Paul Goillot, his real name. For Diane it is the beginning of a metamorphosis from the leader of le Corps Franc Diane to Virginia Hall.
Erika Robuck carefully researched the heroine and events in The Invisible Woman. This is clearly shown in the Afterword and additional information at the end of the book. Beside Virginia Hall, many of the characters are based, sometimes loosely and sometimes precisely, on real participants in the French Resistance. What is most remarkable about the novel, however, is not historical accuracy but the magnificent creation of the characters in the book. Virginia Hall is brought to life in the story, as is the depiction of her life struggle and the horrible circumstances in France inflicted by the Nazis in World War II. Robuck’s novel is a beautiful work, so complex and nuanced that readers will carry the story with them for a long time.
Mark Zvonkovic, Reviewer and Author
An incredible read. Hall’s work with the French resistance was both courageous and frightening. So many ordinary people putting themselves and their families at great risk to gain their freedom during German occupied France.
Robuck has mastered the balance of weaving fact with imagination to bring history’s intriguing and under-appreciated female figures to life. The harrowing exploits of WWII secret agent Virginia Hall are told with such nail-biting detail, there were times I had to close the book and wait for my pulse to drop. Absolutely riveting.
If you love historical fiction with a huge-hearted juggernaut of a heroine, The Invisible Woman is for you. This tense and vivid novel stands out because of its unforgettable main character. Virginia is a vigilant spy, a fearless soldier and an unflinching commander. And yet, despite her vows to remain otherwise, she also becomes a person with great love for the people she is striving to liberate. Her desire for victory and vengeance animates every chapter, and her conscience enlivens every page. When you like a character, and then admire her, and then want to meet her, you know the author has made her come uniquely alive. I read this book in a blur — that’s how compelling it was.
Riveting. Heartbreaking. Unforgettable. I read a ton of WWII fiction & know details of Virginia Hall’s life. So I was surprised at how much this book touched me. Author Erika Robuck has a light touch with some heavy topics, and I turned my Kindle pages quickly. (It’s a nail-biter in parts as well.) Yet I was completely drawn in to care deeply about the characters. Virginia is an incredible heroine, and I loved her involvement with the boys of the resistance & the village of Chambon. The best part–she was real & this is based on true events. What an uplifting story!
I’ve long been a fan of Erika Robuck’s novels. She has a true gift for capturing vivid historic settings and filling them with fascinating and layered characters. In her newest release, she has turned her talents on the real-life spy Virginia Hall, a fierce and remarkable figure whose cunning and bravery during World War II makes for a propulsive and unforgettable read. Make no mistake, Hall is a complex character. Driven and haunted, a brilliant woman who keeps her emotions as close as her precious network of allies, but Robuck finds Hall’s beating heart and puts it on every page. You’ll be up long into the night with this one.
The publishing world is saturated by WWII novels. And yet there always seems to be one more story to be told, a story unlike the others we have read. The Invisible Woman offers readers a character so amazing that it is hard to believe she is based on a real woman.
In The Invisible Woman, Erika Robuck brings to life Virginia Hall Goillot who went into occupied France as a “pianist,” coordinating and supplying the Marquis as they sabotaged the Nazis. She was the only civilian woman to be award the U. S. Distinguished Service Cross, and one of the first women to work for the C.I.A.
It is a riveting read.
The average lifespan of a pianist was six weeks. “You will receive no praise or accolades for your service,” Virginia was warned, “Without military uniform, if captured, you will not fall under Geneva protection.”
She would starve. She would feel guilt over the deaths of those involved in her work. She could be jailed, raped, tortured, or put to death.
Virginia accepted the challenge. She had a debt to pay.
Virginia wore a prosthetic leg but it did not stop her from her work. Masquerading as an elderly woman, she rode a bicycle for hours, trekked through deep mountain snow, endured danger and grief, gained the trust of the boys and men she worked with, and was aided by women and children.
The “nameless and faceless” army of common folks were true heroes, enduring suffering and loss. A village of pacifist Christians hid thousands of evacuated Jewish children.
Virginia struggles with what she has seen. How do men become monsters? Is humanity redeemable? Can small acts overpower it? Was resisting worth dying for? Will her humanity be another victim of the war?
Readers will be gratified by the ending.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
In The Invisible Woman, Erika Robuck shows us exactly how biographical fiction should be written: with respect for the historical record, a deep understanding of the subject, and the empathy to allow the character at the heart of the novel to shine through. Virginia Hall was a true hero and she comes to extraordinary life in this book. I loved everything about it, from Virginia’s bravery to her frailties, to the enthralling evocation of life with the French Resistance during WWII, to the incredible courage of the ordinary people who fought for freedom and who are honoured here. If you only read one WWII book this year, make it this one
I’ve read a lot of books in this genre. This was good but it really didn’t trod any different ground than other books about women working as spies in WWII.
The novel reads like non-fiction because the research into the ‘real’ American spy, Virginia Hall, is impeccible. There is no glossing over the terrible conditions these volunteers behind enemy lines in Nazi-held France endured, nor the life-and-death situations they faced as WW II ground on nearly six long years. A spy with a wooden leg? Yes, and so many other unexpected aspects to this story. This novel will stick with you a good, long time after you reach the last page.
Erika Robuck has given readers a precious gift. Her heroine, Virginia Hall, was a singular figure whose true life story is the stuff of inspiration and legend — Nazi hunters, secret spy work from Paris to the Pyrenees, and epic feats of human goodness and bravery amid some of modern history’s darkest moments. Robuck combines meticulous historical research with stunning prose and unforgettable characters to offer a book that is breathtakingly beautiful, and readers will not be able to put it down.