The Defection of A. J. Lewinter - Softcover

Littell, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395154812 ISBN 13: 9780395154816

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1973

Synopsis

This first novel by Robert Littell, bestselling author of The Company, immediately elevated him to the ranks of John le Carre, Len Deighton, and Graham Greene. A.J. LeWinter is an American scientist, for years an insignificant cog in America’s complex defense machinery. While at an academic conference in Tokyo, LeWinter contacts the KGB station chief and says he wants to defect. He tantalizes the Russians with U.S. military secrets he claims to possess, but is his defection genuine? Neither the Russians nor the Americans are sure, and LeWinter is swept up in a terrifying political chess match of deceit and treachery. Deft and dazzlingly plotted, this is the book that introduced Robert Littell―the opening shot of a brilliant career.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Littell is the author of thirteen novels, published in twelve languages around the world. His most recent, The Company, is one of the most talked about, eagerly awaited books of the year. Littell is also a former Newsweek journalist.

From Publishers Weekly

The reissue of this 1973 Cold War gem comes on the heels of Littell's recent hardcover thriller The Company. Set in the early 1970s, the spy thriller-cum-black comedy begins when A.J. Lewinter, an eccentric American engineer specializing in nose cones for ballistic missiles, decides to defect to the Soviet Union. Such a high-level defection is unprecedented, and each side suspects the other of something fishy. A hilarious contest ensues as they try to outconnive each other. On the American side is a coldly libidinous intelligence agent named Diamond (when a mistress asks him what he would have done if she hadn't passed a security background check, he says, "I would have taken you to bed-but I wouldn't have talked to you"). His KGB analogue is the nervous Pogodin (self-described as "one-quarter Marxist, one-quarter humanist, and one-half bureaucrat"), who knows too well the consequences of any mistake. The book paints a bleak view of both sides of the Cold War divide: the socialist dream has given way to a police state plagued by chronic food shortages and ruled by an elite oligarchy that gets the few decent cars and apartments in Moscow, while on democracy's home front, race riots and antiwar protests multiply. Concise, smart and funny, this novel turns Cold War spy cliches on their head. Though the ambiguous ending no longer terrifies, this book still packs a punch and seems prescient to boot. Those who only know Littell's more recent works should enjoy this fast, fun trip into the past.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Publication date: 1973
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395154812
• ISBN 13: 9780395154816
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230