Books like Foreign Agent

I read The Day of the Jackal when I was very young, then I saw the original film, and later I read the book again.

It fascinates me because of the precision with which it is written and because of two ideas that have been essential to my own career as a writer: how a terrorist group, by commissioning the assassination of De Gaulle, could have changed history with a single bullet had the attempt succeeded, and how politics becomes intertwined with violence and terrorism, showing that they are ultimately inseparable and that one cannot exist without the other.

I read I Am Pilgrim much later than the other great espionage thrillers, and it rekindled my taste for this kind of novel, which had a major influence on the writing of my book.

Hayes manages to maintain the tension on every page, making it almost impossible to put the book down without knowing what will happen next.

More importantly, he achieves something essential: the struggle between two individuals and their respective power structures becomes a reflection of what it really is—the silent, cold war that ordinary citizens endure without even realizing it exists, a war fought behind our backs and without our knowledge, leaving us adrift among the real forces shaping the world, like a small boat caught in a storm.

I read The Sum of All Fears many years ago, but what struck me most was the sense of helplessness ordinary citizens face when confronted with the catastrophes politics can create.

It is not simply about an individual act of evil, but about how the system itself can enable extreme violence that would be impossible without the terrifying power of states and the terrorist groups that grow around them.

That feeling of being at the mercy of politics, unable to do anything about it, is deeply disturbing. It reinforces the idea that no system, not even a well-established democracy, is truly in the hands of those who should own it—the citizens—but rather in the hands of elites with immense power.

This book is the most recent novel I have read by John le Carré, an author I am deeply drawn to because, usually far removed from fast-paced action, he reflects with remarkable depth on the hidden and opaque forces that truly govern our societies.

Our Game feels like a fitting culmination of his career, and I could not put it down. I read it very quickly, thanks to the precision of his writing and his ability to sustain uncertainty throughout.

The title itself could not be more appropriate: “our game” is the game played by shadow powers, by the hidden face of the state, acting beyond democratic control and with profound disregard for the interests of ordinary men and women.

An ill-timed robbery and a mysterious ghost train—both from 1914—and the present day CIA and MI6: All are perfectly normal, abnormal elements to this Clive Cussler novel.

I especially like this book for its ties to recent American history. It flirts with elements of espionage and the crackerjack job of merging a confounding prologue with a mystery that needs solving. There is a combination of Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels that have influenced my own story-telling, and this one is among them.

Cussler penned an entire series around his National Underwater and Marine Agency Projects Director, Dirk Pitt. Nearly every one of the novels begins with an event of the distant past that culminates in the present. This novel follows that pattern but involves political concerns regarding the North American Continent. While Cussler’s characters only occasionally rise to the challenge of emotionally involving me, his plots—the twists, turns, and historical antecedents—always… show more.

I lived and worked in Damascus for several months before the outbreak of what has become a dreadful and ongoing war. It was one of the greatest experiences in my life, and I still have great affection for the city, the country, and its people.

Writers there have long balanced off politics and life, and one of the best was Khalid Khalifa whose books for me capture so much of what has been the Syrian experience for the last half century or so. His characters might have been taken directly off the street and stood in a long line of the great Arabic story tradition, which has so much to tell us about life, meaning, challenge, and triumph. 

I love this classic novel; it is one of my old favorites.

Nowhere in the genre of young adult literature does there seem to be an author more subversive than Paula Danziger; here (and in the companion novel The Cat Ate My Gymsuit), she directly encourages the young reader to question adult authority and suggests that with protests and education about what rights the law gives (and withholds from) young people, it might be possible to effect change and increase their rights.

I also found it great that the novel shows the protagonist’s parents in raw realism–the father as a hypocritical, cheap, unlikable domestic despot, the mother as a shrinking violet who at first tends to excuse the father and conform to his expectations, but eventually starts questioning her stance when she sees her daughters rebel.

This novel's compelling cover reeled in this reader straightaway and, indeed, delivers with a plot that captures the gothic folk horror genre in a tidy and well-written package.

As I read it, it felt like Harvest Home and The Wicker Man were seated on either shoulder. Overarching the story is also a "morality play" at work, expertly woven in. Bonus points for historical roots and an English village setting.

So original, so folky horror, so good and, simply put, a treat.

I had long wanted to read this book, and when I finally got around to it, I was absolutely immersed in it from start to finish.

The writing is magnificent, the subject grueling. Nobody in it is safe. It is an unflinching account, told from first-hand experience but fictionalized, of the realities of war at sea. I have read several other Monsarrats, and they are all brilliant.

This one fits best with my own quieter story of the women left behind. An additional detail makes it even more appropriate, because my Aunt Wendy knew Nicholas Monsarrat.

Almost every character in this book has something to hide, and I listened to this book quickly to find out their secrets. I don’t always opt for audiobooks, but the narrator differentiated the characters beautifully and added a layer of emotion.

I don’t want to spoil any of the characters’ secrets, but let’s just say the relationship between the living and the dead gets a little complicated. Eric’s love for his daughters and willingness to do anything for them resonated with me, especially when any one of them was in the house.