A beautifully written biographical novel about one of the most notorious and fascinating women of the twentieth century

In the cold October of 1917 Margaretha Zelle, alias Mata Hari, the infamous exotic dancer, sits in a prison cell in Paris awaiting trial on charges of espionage; the penalty, death by firing squad. As she waits, Mata Hari tells stories - much like Scheherazade in The 1001 Nights - to buy back her life from her interrogators. From a bleak childhood on the shores of the North Sea, through a loveless marriage to a Dutch naval officer, Margaretha is transported to the sensual pleasures of the south seas. She spins tales of native lovers and fragrant Javanese jungles; she tells of the ugly disintegration of her family. Then, in flight from her brutal husband, Margaretha reinvents herself: she becomes the temple dancer Mata Hari - dressed in veils, admired by Diaghilev, performing for the crowned heads of Europe. Tender, subtle and intensely erotic, Murphy's retelling of an iconic story is a haunting portrait of love and treachery.

'In SIGNED, MATA HARI, Yannick Murphy once again treats us to her luscious signature lyric style, its whispers and perfumes, in this time- and space-bending tale of the famous dancer and accused spy. Told through small, impressionistic scenes and reveries, this story of an enigmatic woman hangs timeless between the unreality of her present and the clarity and urgency of her past' Janet Fitch, author of PAINT IT BLACK and WHITE OLEANDER 'Yannick Murphy, while being one of our most daring and original writers, is first and foremost an exquisitely attuned observer of human behavior. Her characters are so richly imagined and believable that when you're finished with one of her books, you expect to find her characters' names in the phone book. Murphy's work provides pretty much unexceeded reading pleasure' Dave Eggers 'More stunning, even, than this lush, luscious, prose is how Yannick Murphy turns preconceived notions inside out. Rendered with great insight and compassion, Murphy's Mata Hari is revealed, not as a spy, but as a sympathetic and intensely complicated woman. A wife, a mother, a lover, an artist, she is worthy of our admiration and of our hearts. Signed, Mata Hari is a thrilling and a devastating novel' Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of AN ALMOST PERFECT MOMENT 'Brilliant in its structure, beautiful in its language, rich in its characterization, Yannick Murphy's new novel, SIGNED, MATA HARI, also happens to have at its center one of the most fascinating figures of the early twentieth century, a woman who ached deeply and searched intensely for an identity. In Murphy's masterful hands, this quest is tenderly and movingly rendered' Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain 'Vivid and compelling' INDEPENDENT 'A beautifully written, cleverly imagined and sympathetic retelling of . . . the Mata Hari myth' TIMES