The Lost Girls of Paris: A Novel

“The idea had come to her weeks earlier as she watched one of the girls in the radio room decode a message that had come through from a field agent in France with a swift and sure hand. Her talents were wasted, Eleanor thought. The girl should be transmitting in the field. The idea was so foreign that it had taken time to crystalize in Eleanor’s own mind.”

The author uses this passage describing Eleanor’s original idea for the female SOE unit to provide historical context. In 1940s England, gender roles were rigid, and although women could hold jobs, they were rarely allowed access to high-stakes, dangerous roles. Eleanor is an unconventional thinker who is motivated by her desire to help England and by her personal belief in the talents of women.

“Just because you don’t know why you’ve come, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be here. We often find purpose where we least expect it—or not.”

This passage, in which Eleanor is speaking to Marie, exemplifies Eleanor’s dedication to her work, which leads her to be a stern and inspiring figure in her interactions with the agents. Eleanor believes that Marie will find a sense of purpose while training with the other women, but she also knows that Marie will need strong motivation and resilience to survive the challenges of working for the SOE.

“What kind of mother would do such a thing? The responsible choice would be to stay here in London, to thank Eleanor and go back to whatever ordinary life was left during the war. She was the only parent Tess had.”

Marie’s struggle to identify her motivation for joining SOE is a major internal conflict for her and emphasizes The Strength of Wartime Bonds. Marie’s character growth is evidenced in her eventual realization that Tess is her reason for joining the SOE because she wants to make positive changes in the world for Tess’s sake.

“‘Come,’ she said, ‘Pretend we’re dancing at one of those fancy clubs in London.’ The notion was so far-fetched and removed from what they were doing that Marie found herself smiling around the pain. With a strength that seemed superhuman, the girls pushed forward, the slight girl nearly carrying Marie…”

This is a formative moment in the friendship between Josie and Marie. Later, as Josie is dying in the train car on the way to Dachau, Marie will remind her of this moment. The novel celebrates female strength and resilience, especially the strength that is derived from female friendships. Josie and Marie motivate each other and inspire each other, reinforcing the theme of the strength of wartime bonds.

“Every one of us is scared and alone. You’ve said it aloud once. Now bury it and never mention it again.”

Josie offers Marie this harsh piece of advice, demonstrating the demanding environment in which the SOE agents are trained. Eleanor designs this training program to be especially demanding because she wants the agents to be prepared for the demands of being a covert agent in occupied territory. Such rigors establish The Double-Edged Sword of Secrecy, for the demands of the job force the agents to subject themselves to harsh realities.

“Each had her own reasons for signing up. Brya was the daughter of Russians, driven by hatred of the Germans for what they had done to her family outside of Minsk. Maureen, a working-class girl from Manchester, had left a funeral of her husband and enlisted to take his place.”

The novel explicitly investigates what motivates people during wartime. As Marie searches her heart to discern whether she has the drive to face the hard and dangerous work of an SOE agent, she looks to the women around her for guidance. They are inspired mostly by their loved ones, reinforcing the strength of wartime bonds.

“She felt silly, though, complaining after all Josie had been through at such a young age. Her own childhood, while cruel, had been one of unmistakable privilege, not at all like Josie’s street urchin-like experience. The two would not have known each other in different circumstances. Yet here they had become fast friends.”

Throughout the novel, strong relationships are forged quickly under the pressures of stress and danger. After only weeks of training together, Marie and Josie become “fast friends,” united by adversity and by a shared cause. This pattern is also reflected in Marie’s relationship with Julian and in Eleanor’s relationship with her agents.

“‘This isn’t about the technical skills,’ Eleanor interjected. ‘It’s about the spirit. Your radio, for example. It isn’t just a machine, but it is an extension of yourself.’”

Marie’s wireless radio symbolizes her dedication to her work for the SOE, something that Eleanor wants Marie to recognize. Marie must be natural and quick when she uses the machine, and in her initial training, she struggles to master that skill until she clarifies her motivations for joining the SOE.

“She’d scrubbed the flat before she moved in, trying without success to remove the lingering pipe smoke odor that clung to the walls and the sense that someone else quite nearly still lived here. And beyond that she hadn’t done anything to make it more like home, because that would mean acknowledging that she might stay for good—and the hard truth that she didn’t want to go back.”

Grace’s character arc begins from a place of isolation and aimlessness; stuck in her grief and guilt, she runs away to New York but resists settling in because she doesn’t know what she wants the next phase of her life to be. Here, she begins to admit that she only knows what she doesn’t want; she doesn’t want to go back to her old life.

“Grace wondered if the series of bizarre events might have been a dream. But the photographs sat neatly on her nightstand like an expectant child, reminding her that it was not.”

The photographs of the missing SOE agents lure Grace into solving the mystery of their identity and owner; she can’t help but feel intrigued by and connected to the women in the pictures. Her reaction to the photos demonstrates her innate inquisitiveness and desire for adventure. The mysteriousness—or, as Grace puts it, the dreamlike quality—of the photos symbolizes the difficulty in preserving an accurate historical record, as Grace must put a lot of work and energy into discovering the agents’ origin.

“He looked surprised, as if no one had ever joked with him. ‘You could sound as if you meant it,’ he replied stiffly. ‘I’m also called Julian, by the way.’”

Julian and Marie’s romance is a source of emotional release and comfort for both of them. Marie’s curiosity and sense of humor allow Julian to let his guard down; she offers him some much-needed rest. In keeping with the theme of the strength of wartime bonds, their relationship provides crucial motivation for both of them to withstand imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Nazis.

“Her job, Marie wanted to retort, was to operate the radio from somewhere hidden away. Yet someone in her first twenty-four hours on the ground, she’d become first a translator, and now operative. She recalled then how Eleanor said the agents must be well trained in all aspects of the job because they might be called upon to do anything at any time, as well as Josie’s comment that they must do the work that was needed. This was her mission, or part of it, at least.”

It isn’t until she is on the ground in France that Marie truly realizes the depth of the role that she has taken on. The tension of the narrative builds as Marie is put into increasingly dangerous circumstances all while the reader—because we have access to Eleanor and Grace’s perspectives as well—is beginning to understand that something is wrong with the network.

“Grace’s guilt rose. He thought that she was taking time because of her grief over Tom. Instead, she was jetting out of town to chase a mystery that was none of her business with a man she should never see again.”

Grace wrestles with intense guilt in the first half of the novel. The author illustrates that guilt by frequently using the word “should” in Grace’s thoughts and dialogue. Grace overcomes some of this guilt by the end of the novel after her curiosity in the mystery brings positive results, and she also realizes that her relationship with Mark is worth pursuing.

“The first thing that should have tipped Eleanor off was the lack of mistakes.”

The author foreshadows the eventual infiltration of the SOE radio network when Eleanor starts to get an inkling that something is wrong with the transmissions. Here, the “mistakes” that should have been present are the security checks assigned to each operator to confirm their identity.

“Marie looked up at Julian, his face just visible in the faint moonlight. He was gazing down at her. His eyes conveyed a mixture of worry and relief, and perhaps something more, though she might have imagined it. Her eyes met his, held.”

This scene takes place on the train after Marie has completed a dangerous mission to retrieve a packet of TNT from a contact in Paris. This is one of the first moments of intimacy shared between Marie and Julian, when she begins to realize that she cares for him. The author uses the descriptive imagery of Julian’s face in the moonlight to invoke a more romantic tone. At the same time, his eyes carry conflicting emotions, underscoring the complexity and danger of their relationship.

“The women should have been treated like prisoners of war. Instead, they had been slaughtered. But under Nacht und Nebel, the Germans hadn’t wanted anyone to know what had become of the girls.”

This passage unites two major concerns of the novel: the women’s lack of standing because of their gender and their secretive work, and the cruel tactics used by the Nazi regime. Both of these concerns highlight the dangers of secrecy as well as the many ways in which historical truths can be forgotten or covered up.

“‘But she broadcasts for Vesper network, which is the largest in-country. We’d be crippled. It would shut down operations.’ Eleanor noted with a bit of pride how integral the women had become to the fight in such a short amount of time. A year ago the men had doubted the women could help at all—now they could not function without them.”

In this scene, the Director overrules Eleanor’s concerns that Marie’s radio is compromised. It will later be revealed that the Director knows it is compromised and is willing to risk the network agents’ safety to pass misinformation to the Germans. At this moment, however, Eleanor’s concerns foreshadow the later revelation of the Director’s betrayal and emphasize the vital work that the female agents are doing for the SOE.

“The feelings that she had tried so hard to ignore when he was here had seemed to burst wide-open during his absence, and she knew there would be no denying them when he returned.”

Worrying about Julian’s safety makes Marie realize that she is in love with him. Her concern for him also motivates her to stay behind in France, taking a great personal risk to look for him. In keeping with the theme of the strength of wartime bonds, Marie finds the will to take the greatest risks of her life because of her relationship with Julian.

“Marie felt paralyzed by her sadness, ready to give up then and there. But Josie would not have stood for her falling apart like this. She forced herself to breathe more calmly, and her sobs began to subside.”

In this passage, Marie is reacting to the news that Josie has been captured. Josie’s arrest will prove fatal, though Marie doesn’t know that yet. Marie draws strength and inspiration from Josie’s example, finding a sense of the strength of wartime bonds.

“She raised one hand to indicate surrender. With her other, she tried to set down the radio case behind the door. But the second officer kicked it with his foot. ‘Easy,’ his colleague admonished. He smiled coldly at Marie. ‘I’m told you’ll be needing that.’”

This is the final scene in which Marie is in possession of her radio. Her radio—which symbolizes her dedication and also embodies the dangers of her mission—is the last thing she tries to protect when she is being arrested. Soon, Marie will learn that someone in London has betrayed the network, and her loyalty will shift slightly; she will remain loyal to Julian, Josie, and her country but will lose some faith in the integrity of SOE.

“There it was in black-and-white—proof that Eleanor had known the radios were compromised and she continued to transmit critical information that enabled the Germans to arrest the girls. Grace stared at the paper. It was Eleanor’s own confession, as surely as if it had been signed.”

Grace misinterprets the evidence that she and Mark find in the SOE files. The author uses this misinterpretation to build tension; because of the alternating chapters, this detail comes just after Marie is arrested and just before Eleanor is fired. The tension throws suspicion on Eleanor, but Grace’s misinterpretation also represents the challenges involved in accurately recording history.

“Failed experiment. Eleanor seethed at the words. The girls had done great things, accomplished their missions, done everything that was asked of them. No, the failure was not the girls, or even the agents, but headquarters.”

In this passage, the Director is firing Eleanor because he is using the female unit as a scapegoat for the SOE’s compromised security. Because Eleanor is motivated primarily by her loyalty to her female agents, she takes offense at the implication that her agents are a failure and feels the failure as her own instead. Her sense of obligation to her agents and her desire to see justice served motivate her actions for the rest of the novel.

“Kriegler had been the head of the SD—and quite possibly the architect of F section’s downfall. She saw Kriegler’s face in the files of Norgeby House, details of his sadistic treatment of prisoners. Eleanor’s grip on the paper tightened. Kriegler was alive and he was about to go on trial. Surely he knows Marie’s fate—and the identity of her betrayer.”

Kriegler is one of the novel’s antagonists. His role and character are complex, however, because he provides—albeit for selfish reasons—the information that Eleanor needs to confirm the Director’s crimes and discover that Marie is still alive.