Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
“It is a shame that what happens today already happened yesterday, and will happen again tomorrow; it will continue to happen until the end of time, or until man finds out he is not only what he thinks, but mostly what he feels. The body tires easily, but the spirit is always free and will help us get out, one day, from this infernal cycle of repeating the same mistakes every generation. Although thoughts always remain the same, there is something stronger, and this is called Love.”
Excerpt From: Coelho, Paulo. “The Spy.” Knopf, 2016-11-22. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/SO3Hdb.l
Excerpt From: Coelho, Paulo. “The Spy.” Knopf, 2016-11-22. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/SO3Hdb.l
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Not sure what to make of this book, really.
The thing is, I began to be interested in Mata Hari's story since before I was in Amsterdam in 2015 and made me purchase this book, one of the few highly anticipated reads for me this year. As [a:Paulo Coelho|566|Paulo Coelho|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201840056p2/566.jpg] claims, the book is highly edited for it to be chronologically arranged and some useless bits has been removed. I certainly am not sure how much of it is tampered. I see some parts were added to meet Coelho's standards, especially the nightingale metaphor used in one of the chapters.
Personally, I cannot say this is a bad book. It isn't. But neither it is an excellent one. It is an okay read.
It saddens me how much hell Mata Hari had to go through during her life, but I think she chose to be involved in that. Her independence really betrayed her in this case. Her independence led her to the wrong men that she ended up having to deal with their perfidiousness, ultimately her death. Her early brutal and traumatic experience made her a pathological liar - which led to unnecessary suspicions. That being said, I am not sure how much of her letters are real. Am not sure if she simply romanticised the stories to make her innocence plausible and would've freed her. It is pretty unclear who's at fault here. But certainly, the lack of concrete evidence surely wasn't enough to put her on the death row. Again, that part of the story was too much she didn't deserve the execution. Well, it was mentioned any involvement with the Germans was enough to put her into suspicion, so I guess she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people? Still... not a good enough reason to be executed. Feel bad for her, really...
Anyway, the read was quick and actually made me Wiki her story a little bit. Because as I said, the book is written from her POV when she was in prison days/months before her execution, it's possible that the stories she wrote was heavily tempered. So if you want facts, go search her up online. It's pretty interesting, really...
Not sure what to make of this book, really.
The thing is, I began to be interested in Mata Hari's story since before I was in Amsterdam in 2015 and made me purchase this book, one of the few highly anticipated reads for me this year. As [a:Paulo Coelho|566|Paulo Coelho|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201840056p2/566.jpg] claims, the book is highly edited for it to be chronologically arranged and some useless bits has been removed. I certainly am not sure how much of it is tampered. I see some parts were added to meet Coelho's standards, especially the nightingale metaphor used in one of the chapters.
Personally, I cannot say this is a bad book. It isn't. But neither it is an excellent one. It is an okay read.
It saddens me how much hell Mata Hari had to go through during her life, but I think she chose to be involved in that. Her independence really betrayed her in this case. Her independence led her to the wrong men that she ended up having to deal with their perfidiousness, ultimately her death. Her early brutal and traumatic experience made her a pathological liar - which led to unnecessary suspicions. That being said, I am not sure how much of her letters are real. Am not sure if she simply romanticised the stories to make her innocence plausible and would've freed her. It is pretty unclear who's at fault here. But certainly, the lack of concrete evidence surely wasn't enough to put her on the death row. Again, that part of the story was too much she didn't deserve the execution. Well, it was mentioned any involvement with the Germans was enough to put her into suspicion, so I guess she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people? Still... not a good enough reason to be executed. Feel bad for her, really...
Anyway, the read was quick and actually made me Wiki her story a little bit. Because as I said, the book is written from her POV when she was in prison days/months before her execution, it's possible that the stories she wrote was heavily tempered. So if you want facts, go search her up online. It's pretty interesting, really...
All I can say is that there were a lot of quotable quotes in this book. The plot may not have been the best, but how the writing was delivered made me keep on reading.
This book was amazing. So, sad too. The execution by firing squad in 1917 I think. She was used by powerful men and that was part of the cause why she was executed.
This is a fictional account of the life of Mata Hari, the famous exotic dancer in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1917, she was executed by the French government for espionage. Mata Hari was a larger than life figure who fashioned any number of lies about herself and her history to achieve the life she wanted. Those lies came back to bite her in the ass during her farce of a trial.
I really like the structure of this novel. It's told through news articles and confessional letters from a variety of sources, though the bulk of the book is written by Mata Hari, with another significant section written by her lawyer following her conviction.
I'm not totally enamored with this book, though, because I just feel like something's missing. I'm not even sure what is missing exactly, I just feel like I would have wanted to see more of actual experiences during the war. Despite the espionage being the reason for her death and the source of the title, there didn't actually seem to be a lot from her about how she dealt with the counterespionage shenanigans she got caught up in. And I suppose part of that is because even as she's writing her final letter, she doesn't want to lose her front, but it just felt lacking to me.
I really like the structure of this novel. It's told through news articles and confessional letters from a variety of sources, though the bulk of the book is written by Mata Hari, with another significant section written by her lawyer following her conviction.
I'm not totally enamored with this book, though, because I just feel like something's missing. I'm not even sure what is missing exactly, I just feel like I would have wanted to see more of actual experiences during the war. Despite the espionage being the reason for her death and the source of the title, there didn't actually seem to be a lot from her about how she dealt with the counterespionage shenanigans she got caught up in. And I suppose part of that is because even as she's writing her final letter, she doesn't want to lose her front, but it just felt lacking to me.
You’ll learn more about Mata Hari from a Wikipedia article than you will from this novel.
I listened to this as an audiobook.
Short. Interesting but jumpy. Beginning is a different person, and the end is her lawyer.
Short. Interesting but jumpy. Beginning is a different person, and the end is her lawyer.
অনুবাদ ভালো ছিল। গল্পের উপস্থাপনা বিন্দুমাত্র মনে ধরেনি, বরং বিরক্তিকর ঠেকেছে। ফার্স্ট পার্সনে না লিখলেই বোধহয় ভালো হতো, মেকি ভাব বহাল থাকায় তেমন অনুভূতি আসেনি আসলে। উন্মুখ হয়ে পড়া শুরু করেছিলাম তবে বিধির বাম, সেই নেট ঘেটেই মাতা হ্যারি নিয়ে জানতে হবে।
I started this book as it was a gift from a friend and I didn't know anything about Mata Hari's life. But from what I've read in reviews about this book, Paulo Coelho did not do justice to the main character. So I guess I'll research a little bit and then probably I'll rate this one.
.
Mr, Paulo Coelho,
Writing biographies is not your piece of cake. Stick to the philosophical stories, you're better at that.
Prologue was the only part of the whole book that was gripping and rest of the book paced fast in the form of letters written by Mata Hari. The narrator was distracted frequently, going from one event to next and she could not hook the reader anywhere in her dull, distracted story. I reckon that Paulo Coelho couldn't detail the complexities of such a woman of free body and mind. Her thinking pattern could've been elaborated to let the reader be inside her mind and viewing the world with her spectacles. I surmised the book to be an understanding through tragic life of Mata Hari, but it did not live up to the expectations. It only provided a faded blueprint. To say the truth, online articles about Mata Hari have been more interesting to read than the book dedicated to Mata Hari.
Very disappointed.
Mr, Paulo Coelho,
Writing biographies is not your piece of cake. Stick to the philosophical stories, you're better at that.
Prologue was the only part of the whole book that was gripping and rest of the book paced fast in the form of letters written by Mata Hari. The narrator was distracted frequently, going from one event to next and she could not hook the reader anywhere in her dull, distracted story. I reckon that Paulo Coelho couldn't detail the complexities of such a woman of free body and mind. Her thinking pattern could've been elaborated to let the reader be inside her mind and viewing the world with her spectacles. I surmised the book to be an understanding through tragic life of Mata Hari, but it did not live up to the expectations. It only provided a faded blueprint. To say the truth, online articles about Mata Hari have been more interesting to read than the book dedicated to Mata Hari.
Very disappointed.