NEW YORK, June 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Paulo Coelho, the bestselling author of The
Alchemist and other works -- whose books have sold 200 million
copies in 160 countries -- has written a new novel based on the
life of Mata Hari. THE SPY
will be published simultaneously in English language territories
around the world on November 22, and
it will be published in the United
States by Alfred A. Knopf.
The announcement was made today by Anne
Messitte, Executive Vice President, Knopf Doubleday
Publishing Group.
THE SPY brings to life the true story Mata Hari, the famous courtesan and accused spy
who was executed for treason one hundred years ago. Mata Hari was a dancer who shocked and delighted
audiences during the First World War, and she became a confidant to
some of the era's richest and most powerful men. She dared to
liberate herself from the moralism and provincial customs of the
early twentieth century, but she ultimately paid for it with her
life. As she waited for her execution in a Paris prison, one of her last requests was for
a pen and some paper to write letters.
Over the past twenty years, Germany, Holland, and MI5 in the UK have released their
files on Mata Hari, and it provided
Coelho with a trove of information as he was researching his novel.
"I ended up with a mountain of documents," Coelho said, "but also
with a question: What did Mata Hari
write in those letters? And how was she caught in so many traps,
set by both friends and enemies?"
Using first-person narrative, Coelho reimagines Mata Hari's life through her final letter, which
was written the week before her execution. There, from prison,
Mata Hari reveals the choices she
made in pursuing her own truth--from her childhood in a small Dutch
town, to her unhappy years as the wife of an alcoholic diplomat in
Java, to her calculated and self-fashioned rise to celebrity in
France. "Mata Hari was one of our first feminists,"
Coelho said, "defying male expectations of that time and choosing
instead an independent, unconventional life. There are lessons we
can draw from her life today, where accusations by the powerful
still cost the innocent their lives."
At her death by firing squad -- as she stared down her
executioners and refused to be blindfolded -- Mata Hari famously said, "I am ready." Coelho
says of that moment, "her only crime was to be an independent
woman."
THE SPY will be published by Knopf in hardcover and as an
eBook, and by Penguin Random House as an audiobook and digital
download, translated from the Portuguese by Zoe Perry; it will be published by Vintage
Español as a Spanish-language hardcover.
About the author:
One of the most influential writers of our time, Paulo Coelho is the author of many
international best sellers, including The Alchemist,
Aleph, Eleven Minutes, Manuscript Found in
Accra, and Adultery.
Translated into 80 languages, his books have sold more than 195
million copies in more than 170 countries. Coelho has an enormous
digital media presence, with more fans than any other author
worldwide: over 17 million fans through Facebook page and 9 million
followers on Twitter. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of
Letters and has received the Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la
Légion d'Honneur. In 2007, he was named a United Nations Messenger
of Peace. Translated by Zoë Perry.
Author Site: paulocoelhoblog.com
Social: Facebook.com/paulocoelho; twitter.com/PauloCoehlo;
instagram.com/paulocoelho/
THE SPY by Paulo Coehlo
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date: November 22,
2016
First print: 150,000
ISBN: 9781524732066 / $22.00 US /
208p
CONTACT: Paul Bogaards, Executive
Vice President, Alfred A. Knopf
212-572-2177
pbogaards@penguinrandomhouse.com
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Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160615/379916
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SOURCE Alfred A. Knopf