Verity calls them "Laurel and Hardy," and believes von Linden hopes she'll "do some ratting" on them ("He does not trust Thibaut because Thibaut is French, and he does not trust Engel because Engel is a woman"). "I am in the Special Operations Executive because I can speak French and German and am good at making up stories," she writes, "and I am a prisoner in the Ormaie Gestapo HQ because I have no sense of direction whatsoever."įräulein Engel translates the written account from English to German for von Linden, and SS-Scharführer Etienne Thibaut metes out Verity's punishments for various transgressions. For instance, she taunts the Nazi officer who turns his back after he returns her clothes one piece at a time, from "the outside in," in exchange for the Allies' codes, so she must undress each time she receives a new item she tells him he's "missing a good show." She's often punished for her sassy commentary, which wins us over immediately. But her small acts of rebellion as recorded by her own hand betray her bravery. She was captured when her plane went down in France, where she's being held by SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden. Verity, the narrator-prisoner's code name, is a Scot working for the allies. It's the opening to her written confession for her Nazi captors. "I am a coward," admits the narrator in the very first line of Wein's ( The Winter Prince) extraordinary novel.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |