As the bombs rained down on Paris, my family fled before the Nazis could take us. I never thought I’d see my beloved home again. But I’ve come back to fight for the people I love. And now, I’m the last agent standing. The freedom of the world rests on my shoulders.
Paris, 1940. As Nazi soldiers march down the Champs Elysees, Noor’s heart is shattered. Her family is forced to flee their home to the safety of England, and as Noor watches the French coast disappear in the distance, she vows to do everything she can to stop Germany from devouring her beloved country.
Training as a wireless operative in England, Noor’s perfect French makes her the ideal candidate for undercover work in her beloved Paris, and she is soon assigned to an illustrious spy network led by a mysterious man named Prosper.
Day after day, Noor walks the treacherous streets of Paris looking for safe places to broadcast messages to London. But Nazi officers lurk around every corner, and Noor’s heart thunders in her chest as she evades detection, tightly clutching the briefcase containing her radio equipment. She knows it would take just one stop and search for her life to be over.
With each passing day her mission becomes more lethal as, one by one, her fellow agents are captured. Someone is betraying them, but who? And when Noor becomes the last agent in the network, can she keep the links with England alive, to help win the war?
An utterly gripping and emotional World War 2 novel inspired by the incredible true story of Noor Inayat Khan, the first female radio operator sent by SOE into Nazi-occupied France. Fans of Suzanne Goldring, Ellie Midwood and Siobhan Curran will be swept away.
Readers love The Last Agent in Paris:
‘From the very first page of this book, I was stunned, mesmerised. Written with a ferocious passion that'll knock the wind out of you! I’m so sad it's over. I could have read another sixty chapters… A fantastic read!’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Fantastic… I loved it… I was hooked from the beginning… you won’t be able to put this down… incredible… awesome… excellent.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I love this story… Noor’s life is an inspiration, and the author tackled her story beautifully… a book I couldn’t put down from start to finish… left me deep in thought.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Wow!… Amazing.’ Goodreads reviewer
‘Beautiful… amazing… Incredible.’ Goodreads reviewer
‘Incredibly moving.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A powerful, historical novel that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep.’ Christian Bookaholic, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Amazing… I couldn't wait to finish this book… You will cheer and cry for Noor.’ @tina_jam_is_on, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Really touched me… Exceptional.’ Goodreads reviewer
‘A joy to read… a remarkable story that has been told with so much care and respect.’ @pagesofachilles
‘A story of heartbreak and incredible courage. Keep the tissues handy.’ NetGalley reviewer
BOOK BUY LINK: https://geni.us/F15npE
Sharon Maas was born to politically active parents in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1951. She was educated in England, Guyana, and, later, Germany. After leaving school, she worked as a reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown and later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist. Sharon has always had a great sense of adventure and curiosity about the world we live in, and Guyana could not hold her for long. In 1971 she set off on a year-long backpacking trip around South America, followed by an overland trek to South India, where she spent two years in an ashram. She lived in Germany for forty-three years and now lives in Ireland. She is the author of The Violin Maker’s Daughter, The Soldier’s Girl, Her Darkest Hour and many other novels.
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
My novels have been set on three different continents, and in each case, I’ve visited the relevant setting – this is as much to imbibe the spirit of the place, as to research the facts. Yes: every location has its own unique atmosphere, a feeling, and for me it is vital to actually go there in order to get fully in touch with the place. That, for me, is a literary pilgrimage.
As for books by other writers: I’ve never made a specific literary pilgrimage inspired by a book I’ve read. If it’s a good book, well written, full of atmosphere as well as factually correct, I will have already been there in my imagination. This year, I’ve been to Italy, North Korea, and Switzerland in my mind, only through reading books with those settings. It’s a very lazy way to travel, I admit, but we can’t go everywhere, and so I have to be an armchair traveller! Perhaps readers can say the same for my own books. I do hope so!
What are common traps for aspiring writers? Advice for young writers starting out.
For me, in the beginning, it was always telling, not showing, and I still see this a lot in some books by beginning writers. It’s better to write the scene actively, from the character’s viewpoint, the character’s experience. How the character experiences the event.
Related to this are the “info dumps”, especially in historical fiction. Pages and pages of information: either descriptions, or the telling of historical events beyond what the character is actually experiencing. We should try and avoid these. It’s admittedly hard in historical fiction, when it’s so important to establish the societal changes surrounding the plot. But these hard facts can be subtly woven into the action.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Be patient! And don’t get too attached to what you’ve written. Yes, you love it with all your heart; you put heart and soul into it. But once it’s done, let go. Let it find its own way in the world. Do the necessary promotion, but remember: it really isn’t your baby.
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
That’s a story in itself! The first book I wrote was over 700 pages long. I’d poured heart and soul into it, but I knew nothing about the publishing trade. I managed to get a copy of the magazine Writing News, and there was a short article about a new agent, so I sent it to her. I was living in Germany at the time, and she was in London. She rang me up and asked me if I could come to her office. Of course, I did, and took my whole family on a trip to London! I was so scared. I believed she was going to tell me it was awful. Her office was in her home, and the first thing she said was that it was “terrific”. But it needed work. Right there and then she went through the manuscript with me. In those days, there were no digital copies, no email so it was a big fat printed manuscript, about seven inches high! Oh, it was demolition time! She really did have a red pen and she crossed out page after page after page. And then she sent me away and told me to rewrite it. I did. Typed the whole thing out from scratch; but this time only 450 pages.
I sent it back to her, and she submitted it again and again and again, but only met with rejection. This went on for months. I remember at one point I broke down in tears on the telephone, after yet another rejection.
Then I wrote another book, from scratch. That agent seemed to have lost interest, so I sent it to an assessment editor. She loved it and asked me to make changes, which I did. Next thing I knew, she had sent it to a major London agent. And that agent sent it to a few editors and the offers poured in. That was the start of a whole new chapter in my life. That book was Of Marriageable Age, post colonial fiction set in Guyana and India.
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
Money spent on travelling to the locations of my novels! This has seen me flying off to my country of birth, Guyana; as well as exploring new locations in India, Mumbai, Kodaikanal, the Himalayas. Not to mention Germany. I’ve been to the Alsace – cosy villages, as well as the concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof. I also went to Berlin, and to Hitler’s Alpine retreat in Austria, the Eagle’s Nest, near Berchtesgaden in Germany.However, I’m always sure to combine such excursions with a holiday!
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
I’ve been a reader from a very young age, but I was twelve years old when I discovered just how much power a book can have. The book was My Friend Flicka, about Ken McLaughlin, a boy who lives on a ranch in Wyoming, and his great love for the foal his father gives him to train. I cried for days at the end, and I can still quote the sentences that made me cry, and I can still remember that feeling of heartbreak.
I read the book again recently, and it is still just as good. But what surprised me is that it’s as much about the adults as the boy – his parents, and their marital problems. It’s a very mature book.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
As well as visiting the relevant location – which I do the moment I know what and where I’m writing about – I buy or borrow as many books as I can on the relevant subject. I tend to read as I write, not in advance – looking up the relevant facts as I go along.
What are the ethics of writing about historical figures?
I’ve had to confront this question with my most recent book, The Last Agent in Paris. It’s the life story of a real-life person, which I needed to bring to life to make her extraordinary life accessible for present-day readers. I felt from the start that it would be wrong to distort her life in any way. I had to keep to the actual facts of her life story. Anything else would be unethical. I could not use her to forward the plot in any way: her story IS the plot, and it needed no embellishment.But I felt I had a free hand with thoughts, dialogue, relationships, as long as these were credible for the circumstances, and for her character and those around her. I tried to honour what I believed she would have been thinking and feeling; her thought processes as they were relevant to her unusual upbringing and faith. I think that the ability to empathise with who that person was, how they would have behaved, keeps such historical fiction ethical.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I do read them in the weeks after publication. I try to distance myself from criticism, and if possible learn from reviews which make valid critical points. Though I have to admit it’s hard when a reader says the story “drags”, when you were writing it with bated breath!
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
The actual act of writing. I don’t mind sitting down to write at the keyboard, but I have difficulty typing due to a disabled forefinger – I broke it when I was a child and I cannot use it for anything useful. So I type with nine fingers and make loads of typos and I really, really hate it! I wish there was a programme that could convert my thoughts to written words! Maybe there will be, in a few decades.
Tell us about your novel/novels/or series and why you wrote about this topic?
My latest book, The Last Agent in Paris, is about Noor Inayat Khan, a SOE agent sent to Paris as a wireless operator. Soon after her arrival, the network she worked for fell apart like a ton of bricks around her, and she had to hold it all together on her own.I was galvanised when I first read about her; not only about her actual work, but because of her background and character. Her father was a famous Sufi teacher of the time; she was an introverted, sensitive soul. Those are the details of her life that seem incongruent with her decision to plunge into the perilous work of an underground agent in Paris. I felt such admiration for her, and rooted for her story to have a good outcome. She would have deserved better. I wanted to bring this story to readers of today, before she fades into obscurity. We owe so much to these brave men and women.
What is your favourite line or passage from your own book?
Towards the end, she and three other captive women are on a train in Germany, not knowing where they are headed, watched over by German guards. They can hear Allied planes screeching by, bombs dropping; they know the end of the war is near, that the Allies are winning, and they are trying to keep their hopes up by telling each other stories and singing songs such as We’ll Meet Again and Lili Marleen. And romantic songs as they remember the men they love, and they dream of reunion, of a future. Their hope is that they will be released at the end of the journey.
But the train is headed for Dachau.
What was your hardest scene to write?
One of the opening scenes: when Noor’s family is forced to flee Moscow in 1914, and their carriage is stopped by an angry horde of rioters. I hoped to set the stage for her entire life with this scene. To show her family, her father, and she as a baby – who with her very innocence calms the rioters. I never feel as if I can do a scene justice with words, and this was one of those times. I could see and feel all this so strongly – but how to put it all into words? Words are never adequate.
Tell us your favourite quote and how the quote tells us something about you.
“And Vilayat, I feel that this is just such a war. A war that has to be fought. And good people will die, good soldiers on both sides. But we must not fear death, for it is inevitable, sooner or later. I feel it is my duty to fight in whatever capacity I am called for. As a nurse, or in any other way.”
In this quote, Noor is referring to the Hindu scripture, The Bhagavad Gita, and her hero, Arjuna, who must overcome his abhorrence of war and killing, and simply fight because it is the right thing to do. Because darkness must be overcome, and we must find the courage to face it head on.This is my own philosophy in life. Not to be afraid of hardship, not to avoid it, but to face it head on, gathering courage. Because that is how a strong character is built.
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