''The Girl Who Fell from the Sky'' (as published in the UK by

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

) or ''Trapeze'' (as published in the US by

Other Press Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poet ...

) is a novel written by

Simon Mawer Simon Mawer ( ; born 1948, England) is a British author who lives in Italy. Life and work Born in 1948 and was educated at Millfield School in Somerset and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Mawer took a degree in Zoology and has worked as a biolog ...

, published in 2012. It is a historical novel about a woman during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

whose ability to speak French and propensity for risk Messy, duplicitous, violent – and so alluring
Baltimore Brew, June 1, 2012. attracts the attention of the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

and eventually leads her to be an agent operating in

occupied Europe German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

before she is even twenty years old. Mawer incorporates both fact and fiction in the telling of her story. The American title was chosen to avoid confusion with the 2010 novel by

Heidi W. Durrow Heidi W. Durrow (born June 21, 1969) is an American writer, author of best-seller ''The Girl Who Fell From the Sky'', and the winner of the 2008 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction. Life and education Durrow, the daughter of a Dani ...

. The book has been widely reviewed in a number of news sources in the UK (including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' and '' The Telegraph'') and USA (including the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'').‘Trapeze,’ by Simon Mawer
Washington Post, June 11, 2012. In June 2012, Mawer was the guest on a radio broadcast of the Diane Rehm Show, where he talked about his new book.Simon Mawer: "Trapeze"
Diane Rehm Show, June 12, 2012.

References

External links

Other Press webpage on ''Trapeze''

2012 British novels Novels set during World War II Little, Brown and Company books Other Press books {{2010s-WWII-novel-stub