Why am I passionate about this?
I have always been interested in politics, and when I was more naive, I believed politics was essential to protect ordinary people. Over time, however, you lose that innocence and begin to understand that, on the contrary, politics is often a means of controlling us and has few scruples about the lives it destroys.
My other great passion is literature. When you bring those two passions together and realize that the world is not quite as you have been told, you begin to feel a moral duty to tell that story, and to tell it as well as possible so that it can reach as many readers as possible.
W.'s book list on political spy thrillers where shadow powers change the world
Why W. loves this book
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.
15 authors picked I Am Pilgrim as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The astonishing story of one man's breakneck race against time to save America from oblivion.
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A FATHER PUBLICLY BEHEADED. Killed in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square.
A YOUNG WOMAN DISCOVERED. All of her identifying characteristics dissolved by acid.
A SYRIAN BIOTECH EXPERT FOUND EYELESS. Dumped in a Damascus junkyard.
SMOULDERING HUMAN REMAINS. Abandoned on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan.
PILGRIM. The codename for a man who doesn't exist. A man who must return from obscurity. The only man who can uncover a flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.
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'The plot twists…
