Book Club Discussion Questions for Code Name: Lise by Larry Loftis

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

In a book club? Subscribe to our Book Club Newsletter and get our best book club books of 2025!



For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Great Britain's First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and our BookBrowse Review of Code Name: Lise.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. What prompted Odette Sansom to leave her husband and three young daughters and sign up with SOE?
2. How would you describe Odette? The evaluation following her SOE training referred to her as a loose cannon, arrogant, relentless, and fearless. Do you agree with any/all of those descriptions? What adjectives would you add?
3. Why did SOE recruit Odette? What qualities made her potential spy material?
4. The SOE training program Sansom underwent proved rigorous. How do you think you might have fared? What part of training would you have found most difficult?
5. What do you make of Peter Churchill and the couple's love affair?
6. Talk about the mistake Odette made which resulted in her capture by the Nazis.
7. In what way did her childhood illnesses—polio and blindness—help prepare Odette for the horrific ordeal as a Nazi prisoner?
8. Why didn't the Nazis kill Odette and Peter?
9. Of the many incidents, close calls, lies and ruses, which stand out to you most—in terms of Odette's bravery and cleverness, in terms of danger or recklessness… or anything else in particular?
10. Would you have signed up for the SOE? Would you have been capable or willing to undertake the role of a spy in Nazi occupied territory?

Questions provided with permission from Litlovers.com: https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/non-fiction/code-name-lise-loftis?start=3

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Gallery Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.