“A riveting imagined world, so real in fact that one always wonders if it is imagined at all.” —Scott Turow
Made restless by the tightening restrictions of CIA bureaucracy, agent Alan Taylor oversteps moral and legal bounds in a top-secret mission to destabilize the Soviet Union. His new recruit—the beautiful Anna Barnes, who struggles with complex feelings for Taylor—receives a deeper education than she signed up for in David Ignatius’s trademark world of shifting international and domestic pressures, hidden loyalties, and secret agendas.
From Publishers Weekly
The tottering Soviet empire and a U.S. whose power is unraveling around the globe provide the context for a spy thriller that succeeds as both stunning entertainment and searching probe of the contemporary political chessboard. Alan Taylor, CIA chief in Istanbul, sentimental nihilist and professional malcontent, enlists nervy, vulnerable Anna Barnes, fresh from Harvard's department of Ottoman history, on a mission to destabilize Moslem-dominated Soviet Central Asia. Together they recruit a crude, burned-out ex-CIA man in Athens, an Armenian dissident intellectual and an Uzbek ex-Nazi agent who has been living among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. But Taylor, who keeps overstepping company rules and ethical norms, saves the most dangerous part of the mission for Anna, with whom he is having an affair. Ignatius ( Agents of Innocence ) ranks with Graham Greene in his knowledge of espionage and the human heart. Petro-hustlers, arms dealers, an obnoxious CIA psychiatrist and Islamic nationalists seeking freedom from Russian rule crowd a tricky tale of power politics and double cross. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; BOMC selection. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- A spy novel in which readers are introduced to the ruthless world of international intrigue through novice CIA agent Anna Barnes. The time is 1979 and the U. S. appears to be losing the upper hand to the Soviet Union. The Shah of Iran has just fled, and in the U. S. Embassy Americans are being held hostage. The stability of the Middle East is wavering. In Latin America, the U. S. backed dictator of Nicaragua has sought refuge in the United States, and a treaty has just been signed with Panama to turn over control of the Panama Canal by the year 2000. The good old boys of the CIA are being called to task for this unsettling state of affairs by watchdog Congressional committees. The novel is fast paced, accurate, and suspenseful; the characters are memorable. Ignatius draws upon his experience as the foreign editor of the Washington Post to create a story that is so realistic that it is difficult to believe it is fiction. First-rate. --Dolores M. Steinhauer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
“A riveting imagined world, so real in fact that one always wonders if it is imagined at all.” —Scott Turow
Made restless by the tightening restrictions of CIA bureaucracy, agent Alan Taylor oversteps moral and legal bounds in a top-secret mission to destabilize the Soviet Union. His new recruit—the beautiful Anna Barnes, who struggles with complex feelings for Taylor—receives a deeper education than she signed up for in David Ignatius’s trademark world of shifting international and domestic pressures, hidden loyalties, and secret agendas.
From Publishers Weekly
The tottering Soviet empire and a U.S. whose power is unraveling around the globe provide the context for a spy thriller that succeeds as both stunning entertainment and searching probe of the contemporary political chessboard. Alan Taylor, CIA chief in Istanbul, sentimental nihilist and professional malcontent, enlists nervy, vulnerable Anna Barnes, fresh from Harvard's department of Ottoman history, on a mission to destabilize Moslem-dominated Soviet Central Asia. Together they recruit a crude, burned-out ex-CIA man in Athens, an Armenian dissident intellectual and an Uzbek ex-Nazi agent who has been living among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. But Taylor, who keeps overstepping company rules and ethical norms, saves the most dangerous part of the mission for Anna, with whom he is having an affair. Ignatius ( Agents of Innocence ) ranks with Graham Greene in his knowledge of espionage and the human heart. Petro-hustlers, arms dealers, an obnoxious CIA psychiatrist and Islamic nationalists seeking freedom from Russian rule crowd a tricky tale of power politics and double cross. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; BOMC selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- A spy novel in which readers are introduced to the ruthless world of international intrigue through novice CIA agent Anna Barnes. The time is 1979 and the U. S. appears to be losing the upper hand to the Soviet Union. The Shah of Iran has just fled, and in the U. S. Embassy Americans are being held hostage. The stability of the Middle East is wavering. In Latin America, the U. S. backed dictator of Nicaragua has sought refuge in the United States, and a treaty has just been signed with Panama to turn over control of the Panama Canal by the year 2000. The good old boys of the CIA are being called to task for this unsettling state of affairs by watchdog Congressional committees. The novel is fast paced, accurate, and suspenseful; the characters are memorable. Ignatius draws upon his experience as the foreign editor of the Washington Post to create a story that is so realistic that it is difficult to believe it is fiction. First-rate. --Dolores M. Steinhauer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.