The Saboteur, Paul Kix
The Saboteur, Paul Kix
8 Rating(s)
List: $18.99 | Sale: $13.29
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The Saboteur
The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando

Author: Paul Kix

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Unabridged: 7 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 12/05/2017


Synopsis

In the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II—Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur—and his daring exploits as a résistant trained by Britain’s Special Operations Executive.A scion of one of the most storied families in France, Robert de La Rochefoucald was raised in magnificent chateaux and educated in Europe's finest schools. When the Nazis invaded and imprisoned his father, La Rochefoucald escaped to England and learned the dark arts of anarchy and combat—cracking safes and planting bombs and killing with his bare hands—from the officers of Special Operations Executive, the collection of British spies, beloved by Winston Churchill, who altered the war in Europe with tactics that earned it notoriety as the “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” With his newfound skills, La Rochefoucauld returned to France and organized Resistance cells, blew up fortified compounds and munitions factories, interfered with Germans’ war-time missions, and executed Nazi officers. Caught by the Germans, La Rochefoucald withstood months of torture without cracking, and escaped his own death, not once but twice.The Saboteur recounts La Rochefoucauld’s enthralling adventures, from jumping from a moving truck on his way to his execution to stealing Nazi limos to dressing up in a nun’s habit—one of his many disguises and impersonations. Whatever the mission, whatever the dire circumstance, La Rochefoucauld acquitted himself nobly, with the straight-back aplomb of a man of aristocratic breeding: James Bond before Ian Fleming conjured him.More than just a fast-paced, true thriller, The Saboteur is also a deep dive into an endlessly fascinating historical moment, telling the untold story of a network of commandos that battled evil, bravely worked to change the course of history, and inspired the creation of America’s own Central Intelligence Agency.

About Paul Kix

Paul Kix is a deputy editor at ESPN the Magazine. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, New York, Men’s Journal, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven on March 15, 2018

It is very rare when a work of non-fiction approaches a work of fiction. For a book to tell a story that is true, but keeps you riveted as if it were a spy novel, is special. Such is the case with Paul Kix’s first book, THE SABOTEUR: THE ARISTOCRAT WHO BECAME FRANCE’S MOST DARING ANTI-NAZI COMMANDO......more

Goodreads review by Nigel on February 11, 2018

This is the story of Robert de La Rochefoucauld. It opens with an introduction to Robert and states that it is a work of "narrative non fiction". When the war starts Robert, a teenager, escapes to the UK via the Pyrenees and Spain and in the company of some UK pilots for a time. There he is recruite......more

Goodreads review by Mal on October 16, 2019

If you'd visited France anytime during the decades following World War II, you might have gotten the impression that all forty million French men and women had worked for the Resistance. In fact, studies have shown that only about two percent of the population (perhaps three quarters of a million) d......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn on April 19, 2018

My husband loves war stories, and I bought this book for him as an Easter gift. When he finished it, he said he thought I might enjoy it, I don't usually enjoy this kind of story, but I gave it a try and, to my surprise, found it very engrossing. It is a biography of a member of the French resistanc......more

Goodreads review by Jan C on May 02, 2023

Excellent! Very daring. The nazis moved into his home so that his family had to share their house with the officers. They used one portion of the house and the nazis used the other portion. The family ate in the dining room and the nazis used the lounge. The father was, for a time, in a concentration......more