Code Name Hélène
by Ariel Lawhon
Narrated by Barrie Kreinik, Peter Ganim
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
The Gestapo put a 5-million-franc bounty on Nancy Wake's head — and she kept outwitting them anyway, which makes this 17-hour listen feel like it's not nearly long enough.
- Great if you want: a real WWII heroine who actually outran the Gestapo
- Listening experience: emotionally layered, dual-timeline structure builds to a gut-punch finish
- Narration: Kreinik and Ganim split timelines cleanly — never confusing, often gripping
- Skip if: alternating timelines break your immersion in historical fiction
About This Audiobook
Based on the remarkable true story of Nancy Wake, Ariel Lawhon's novel follows an Australian journalist living in Paris who transforms herself into one of the most hunted operatives of World War II. Across four interwoven timelines, each anchored by a different code name, the story traces Nancy's journey from charmed prewar life to clandestine resistance fighter, smuggling people and documents across occupied France with a price on her head and her husband left behind. The novel balances intimate romance against the brutal realities of wartime espionage, drawing on a real figure whose courage and cunning kept the Gestapo at bay for years.
Barrie Kreinik carries the performance with a grounded, unaffected authority that suits Nancy's no-nonsense character, while Peter Ganim provides welcome contrast in the male perspectives woven through the narrative. The dual narration mirrors the novel's structural split across timelines, giving each strand its own emotional register. At over seventeen hours, the story earns its length, and the audio format lets the tension build naturally across the shifting timelines. The novel's 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction reflects its broad appeal, and the audio version delivers on that promise.