What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin

Noor is offered training, and she accepts. When Germany invades France, Noor despairs of ever seeing Armand again, until Kabir unwittingly introduces her to his new friend who is recruiting bilingual women for the resistance. Once the war begins, Noor s family heads to England while Armand s family stays. She stops seeing Armand, but is devastated and lonely.

Noor is faced then with the choice between defying her family and turning against her heart. Uncle Tajuddin and Kabir disapprove of Noor s love for Armand, and as the men of the family in 1930s France, they have the legal right to stop her engagement. Growing up in France, Noor is extremely close with her liberal Muslim father, but when he dies, Noor s conservative uncle Tajuddin and her brother Kabir govern the family. Noor s mother is an American from Boston who married a Sufi musician and teacher from India. Although she must keep the letters hidden from her captor, it is through these words to her unborn child, alternating with a thrilling third person narrative, that we learn Noor s courageous and heartbreaking story. She does so, but also secretly writes letters to someone she addresses as ma petite, the spirit of the child she had conceived with Armand Rivkin, a French Jewish musician and the love of her life. Noor s captor, Herr Vogel, allows her onionskin paper on which he directs her to write children s stories. It is December 1943, the turning point in the war raging in Europe. As the novel begins, we re thrown into a bleak German prison cell with Noor, where she is shackled hand and foot and freezing from the winter s cold. The Giller Prize finalist The Tiger Claw Baldwin’s follow up novel to her award winning What The Body Remembers was born from the silences, conflicting stories and significant gaps she discovered along the way. The story immediately intrigued Baldwin, inspiring her to travel to Europe, seek out the places where Noor lived, interview the people who knew her and discover more about the enigmatic woman. A former Dutch spy told her of the brave and beautiful Indo American woman who left her family in London, England to become a spy in Na*zi occupied France during the Second World War.

Shauna Singh Baldwin first heard of the mysterious story of Noor Inayat Khan codename Madeleine at The Safe House, an espionage themed restaurant in Milwaukee.

What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin