In the cold October of 1917 Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, sits in a prison cell in Paris awaiting trial on charges of espionage. The penalty is death by firing squad. As she waits, burdened by a secret guilt, Mata Hari tells stories, Scheherazade-like, to buy back her life from her interrogators. From a bleak childhood in the Netherlands, through a loveless marriage to a Dutch naval officer, Margaretha is transported to the forbidden sensual pleasures of Indonesia. In the chill of her prison cell she spins tales of rosewater baths, native lovers, and Javanese jungles, evoking the magical world that sustained her even as her family crumbled. And then, in flight from her husband, Margaretha reinvents herself: she becomes an artist's model, circus rider, and finally the temple dancer Mata Hari, dressed in veils, admired by Diaghilev, performing for the crowned heads of Europe. Through all her transformations, her life's fatal questions---was she a traitor, and if so, why?---burns ever brighter.

In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history's most enigmatic women: Mata Hari. HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city. As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she bewitched the era’s richest and most powerful men. But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari’s lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees, and accused of espionage. Told in Mata Hari’s voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to defy convention and who paid the ultimate price.

Dancer. Courtesan. Spy. Executed by a French firing squad in 1917. 100 years on from her death, questions are still raised about her conviction. Now, the lesser-known, often tragic story of the woman who claimed she was born a princess, and died a figure of public hatred with no one to claim her body, is told by breakout talent writer Emma Beeby (Judge Dredd), artist Ariela Kristantina (Insexts), and colorist Pat Masioni drawing on biographies and released MI5 files. In this first part of a five-issue miniseries, we meet Mata Hari in prison at the end of her life as she writes her memoirÑpart romantic tale of a Javanese princess who performed ''sacred'' nude dances for Europe's elite, and part real-life saga of a disgraced wife and mother, who had everything she loved taken from her. But, as she sits trial for treason and espionage, we hear another tale: one of a flamboyant Dutch woman who became ''the most dangerous spy France has ever captured''Ña double agent who whored herself for secrets, lived a life of scandal, and loved only money. Leading us to ask . . . who was the real Mata Hari? Mature readers.

This book explores the life of the controversial and historical figure, Mata Hari -- the exotic dancer, convicted double agent, and original femme fatale--told from her own perspective. It collects the five-issue series and includes additional historical material and an artist's sketchbook. Dancer. Courtesan. Spy. Executed by a French firing squad in 1917. One hundred years on from her death, questions are still raised about her conviction. Now, the lesser-known, often tragic story of the woman who claimed she was born a princess, and died a figure of public hatred, with no one to claim her body is told by break-out talent writer Emma Beeby (Judge Dredd), artist Ariela Kristantina (Insexts), and colorist Pat Masioni drawing on biographies and released MI5 files We meet Mata Hari in prison at the end of her life as she writes her memoir--part romantic tale of a Javanese princess who performed "sacred" nude dances for Europe's elite, and part real-life saga of a disgraced wife and mother, who has everything she loves taken from her. But, as she sits trial for treason and espionage, we hear another tale, of a flamboyant Dutch woman who became "the most dangerous spy France has ever captured"--a double agent who whored herself for secrets, lived a life of scandal and loved only money. Leading us to ask . . . who was the real Mata Hari?

At the turn of the twentieth century, exotic dancer Mata Hari lived and loved by her own rules. *** My Name is Mata Hari tells the story of the infamous dancer and courtesan who began as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, a young Dutch woman who married the older Rudolph MacLeod, a military officer, and traveled with him to the Dutch East Indies. Claiming her mother's Javanese ancestry, she changed her name to Mata Hari, Malay for "eye of the day." Mata Hari danced on stages across Europe and the Middle East, and took many high-ranking military and government officials as her lovers. At the end of a tumultuous life, convicted for espionage during the First World War yet sustained by her pride, she said, "I am a genuine courtesan. And I am a dancer in the true sense." *** Remy Sylado is the pen name of noted Indonesian novelist, poet, playwright, and musician, Yapi Tambayong. He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning film, Ca Bau Kan (2002). Novelist and journalist Dewi Anggraeni delivers a creative rendition of startling depth and sensitivity for the first of Sylado's novels to appear in English.

At seventeen, Indiana Jones thirsted for adventure--but what he found in World War I Paris was beyond his wildest dreams...

A biography of Mata Hari, a Dutch-born performer who was executed as a German spy in France in 1917.