Book description
An engrossing, multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic yet utterly
entertaining and candid saga, bringing to life through a host of
characters - historical and imagined - nearly fifty years of this
secretive and powerful organization. Intelligent and ironic, Littell
tells it like it was: CIA agents fighting not only the 'good fight'
against foreign enemies, but sometimes the bad fight too. The ends
justify such means as CIA-organized assassinations, covert wars,
kidnappings, and the toppling of legitimate governments. Behind every
manoeuvre and counter-manoeuvre, however, one question remains, which
spans the length of the book . . . Who is the mole within the CIA? An
astonishing novel that captures the life-and-death struggle of an entire
generation of CIA operatives during a long Cold War. 'The best American
spy writer currently at work' Daily Telegraph
Connoisseurs of the literary spy thriller have elevated Robert
Littell to the genre's highest ranks - along with John le Carre, Len
Deighton and Graham Greene. Littell's novels include The Defection
of A. J. Lewinter, The October Circle, Mother Russia, The Amateur
(which was made into a feature film), The Once and Future Spy,
An Agent in Place and Walking Back the Cat. A former
Newsweek journalist, Robert Littell is American, currently
living in France.
