Sadie Smith

Sadie Smith is the main character and first-person narrator of the novel. Sadie Smith is the alias she uses while working on the Guyenne Valley job. When she gives this name to one of her marks, Lucien Dubois, she tells him she is from Priest, Valley, California. Lucien is attracted to her because she is American, attractive, and “suitably cultured, with an education” (53). Because Lucien does not ask her many questions about herself, she does not have to develop a full persona. However, as Sadie, she is careful to play the part of Lucien’s girlfriend so as not to arouse the suspicions of Pascal Balmy and the Moulinards when she infiltrates Le Moulin.

For her job, Sadie poses as a translator and works with the Moulinards to translate the commune’s collaborative text into English. Throughout this time, she becomes involved with the members of the...