Excerpt from trial records, 1953
Madame Rouffanche addresses the court
“I ask that justice be done with God’s help. I came out alive from the crematory oven; I am the sacred witness from the church. I am a mother who has lost everything.”
The massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane’s inhabitants is a well-known tragedy in France thanks to the eerie surviving ghost town with its burned clocks and abandoned Peugeot and bullet-pocked walls—but it is less known outside France, where the tragic fate of one small village was subsumed into the broader account of Nazi atrocities. Madame Rouffanche’s words as she recounted her rosary of horrors make for a haunting voice from the past. She told her tale often over the course of her long life, most notably in Bordeaux in 1953 where she was called as a witness against the surviving SS soldiers who had been put on trial for their part in the massacre. She finished her testimony with the plea above, making a powerful impact on the courtroom. One onlooker wrote, “Her voice, without the smallest trace of easy sentiment, reaches us clear and implacable. She is Nemesis, calm and inexorable.”
Reading Group Questions
1.Female friendship is a constant theme throughout The Alice Network. Charlie St. Clair and Eve Gardiner begin as antagonists, whereas Eve and Louise de Bettignies (Lili) are friends from the start. How does each friendship grow and change over the course of events?
2.The young Eve introduced in 1915 is very different from the older Eve seen through Charlie’s eyes in 1947. How and when did you see the young Eve begin to change into her older self? What was the catalyst of those changes?
3.Lili tells Eve, “To tell the truth, much of this special work we do is quite boring.” Did the realities of spy work surprise you, compared to the more glamorous version presented by Hollywood? How do you think you would have fared working for the historical Alice Network?
4.René Bordelon is denigrated by his peers as a war profiteer and an informer. He sees himself as a practical businessman, pointing out that he is not to blame for making money off the invaders, or for tragedies like Oradour-sur-Glane that happened on German orders. Did you see him as a villain or an opportunist? Do you think he earned his final fate?
5.Eve loves Captain Cameron and hates René Bordelon—but her relationship with René is longer, darker, and more complex. How is her hatred for him complicated by intimacy? How does his realization of Eve’s true identity change him? How do you think they continued to think and feel about each other during their thirty years’ separation, and how did that affect their eventual climax?
6.Finn Kilgore and Captain Cameron are parallels for each other: both Scotsmen and ex-soldiers with war wounds and prison terms in their pasts, acting as support systems for the women they love who go into danger. How are the two men different as well as alike? How does Finn succeed where Cameron fails?
7.The disappearance of Charlie’s cousin Rose Fournier provides the story’s driving search. Did her eventual fate surprise you? Had you ever heard of Oradour-sur-Glane? How did Rose’s fate change the goal of the search?
8.Everyone in The Alice Network suffers some form of emotional damage from war: Charlie’s depression after losing her marine brother to suicide, Eve’s torture-induced nightmares, Finn’s concentration-camp memories and resulting anger issues, Cameron’s guilt over losing his recruits. How do they each cope with their war wounds? How do they help each other heal? How is PTSD handled in Eve’s day as compared to Charlie’s day—and as compared to now?
9.Charlie dreads the stigma of being a “bad girl” pregnant out of wedlock, and Eve fears shame and dismissal as a horizontale if it is learned she slept with a source for information. Discuss the sexual double standards each woman faced. How have our sexual standards for women changed since 1915 and 1947?
10.Charlie decides to keep her baby, and Eve decides to have an abortion. Why did each woman make the choice she did?
11.Charlie argues that René should be brought to legal justice, and Eve argues for vigilante justice. Who do you think is right? How did it affect the ending? How do you think the outcome will bind Eve and Charlie and Finn in the future, since they cannot share their adventure with anyone else?
12.“There are two kinds of flowers when it comes to women. The kind that sit safe in a beautiful vase, or the kind that survive in any conditions . . . even in evil.” The theme of the fleurs du mal carries from Lili to Eve—how does Eve pass it on to Charlie? When do you see Charlie becoming a fleur du mal in her own right? How has knowing Eve changed Charlie’s life, and vice versa?
Read on
Further Reading
FICTION
* * *
On female spies:
Shining Through, by Susan Isaacs
Mata Hari’s Last Dance, by Michelle Moran
The Scent of Secrets, by Jane Thynne
Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein
On World War I:
Fall of Poppies, anthology
In Pale Battalions, by Robert Goddard
A Winter’s Child, by Brenda Jagger
The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes
Once an Eagle, by Anton Myrer
Somewhere in France, by Jennifer Robson
The Summer before the War, by Helen Simonson
On World War II:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
Shake Down the Stars, by Frances Donnelly
The Cazalet Chronicle, by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Kommandant’s Girl, by Pam Jenoff
The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer
NONFICTION
* * *
Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics, by Kathryn J. Atwood
The Queen of Spies: Louise de Bettignies, by Major Thomas Coulson
The Long Silence: The Tragedy of Occupied France in World War I, by Helen McPhail
Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War, by Tammy M. Proctor
La Guerre des Femmes, by Antoine Redier
Edith Cavell, by Diana Souhami
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Praise for The Alice Network
“Both funny and heartbreaking, this epic journey of two courageous women is an unforgettable tale of little-known wartime glory and sacrifice. Quinn knocks it out of the park with this spectacular book!”
—Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of America’s First Daughter
“The Alice Network, which hinges on the unsung valor of female espionage agents in the Great War, perfectly balances a propulsive plot, faultlessly observed period detail, and a cast of characters so vividly drawn that I half expected to blink and see them standing in front of me. This is historical fiction at its best—thrilling, affecting, revelatory.”
—Jennifer Robson, international bestselling author of Moonlight over Paris
“A powerful story filled with daring and intrigue, The Alice Network will hook readers from the first page and take them on an unforgettable journey.”
—Chanel Cleeton, author of Next Year in Havana
“A ring of daring female spies known as the Alice Network left a legacy of blood and betrayal. Two women suffering the losses of two different wars must join forces, one to find her voice and her redemption, the other to face her fears and her oldest enemy. Kate Quinn strums the chords of every human emotion with two storylines that race over continents and through decades to converge in one explosive ending.”
—Marci Jefferson, author of Enchantress of Paris
“Kate Quinn delivers an enthralling tale filled with breathtaking narrative that will make the reader feel as if they’re in the back of the roadster, riding along with the raucous Eve and courageous Charlie on their clandestine adventures. Suspenseful and engrossing, The Alice Network is a must-read!”
—Heather Webb, author of Rodin’s Lover
Also by Kate
Quinn
THE EMPRESS OF ROME SERIES
Lady of the Eternal City
The Three Fates (novella)
Empress of the Seven Hills
Daughters of Rome
Mistress of Rome
THE BORGIA CHRONICLES
The Lion and the Rose
The Serpent and the Pearl
COLLABORATIVE WORKS
A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica
A Song of War: A Novel of Troy
Credits
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Cover photographs: © Malgorzata Maj/Arcangel (woman); © Stephen MulcaheyArcangel (warplanes); © David & Myrtille/Arcangel (car)
Cover images © Shutterstock (background)
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE ALICE NETWORK. Copyright © 2017 by Kate Quinn. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition June 2017 ISBN 9780062654205
ISBN 978-0-06-265419-9
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Kate Quinn, The Alice Network
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