From a childhood in a small Dutch town and a marriage to an alcoholic in Java — to the conquest of Paris, where Mata Hari arrived penniless and soon gained fame as one of the most elegant women of the era — throughout her life Mata Hari followed her own truth, was always honest with herself and free from prejudice and clichéd certainties. She paid dearly for it.
Paulo Coelho immerses himself with brilliant mastery in the life of this remarkable woman and resurrects her for modern readers as a vivid example of the fact that even the tallest trees grow from a tiny seed.