The Secret Lovers - Hardcover

McCarry, Charles

3.95

718 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525199349 ISBN 13: 9780525199342

Publisher: Dutton, 1977

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A nervous courier delivers the handwritten manuscript of a dissident Russian novel to Paul Christopher early one morning in West Berlin. Minutes after the handoff, the courier’s spine is neatly snapped by an impact with a passing black sedan. Meanwhile in Rome, Christopher’s wife Cathy takes a famous film director as a lover to stir her husband out of the stoicism that defines his personality.

These two seemingly discrete events set in motion a spiral of operational and personal intrigue that leads Christopher from meetings with an aging agent in the cafes of old Europe to a rendezvous with an operative on the front lines of the Cold War in the Congo as he secretly arranges the publication of a novel that could bring the Soviet system to its knees and races to identify the leak that compromised the messenger—and possibly his entire mission.

Since his reemergence with the publication of Old Boys, Charles McCarry has been once again heralded as one of the select few espionage novelists who manages to break out of his genre to shine as a brilliant novelist in his own right. The Secret Lovers is McCarry at his best—an exploration of the epic scope of "the great game," but also a riveting psychological portrait of a man ensnared by a profession that never failed to exert its insidious influence outside the professional boundaries that, like the facade of diplomacy that outwardly held the Cold War in check, could never contain its violence essence.

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About the Author:

Charles McCarry is the author, most recently, of Christopher’s Ghosts, and has written ten acclaimed novels featuring Paul Christopher and his family (all available from Overlook). During the Cold War, he was an intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

From AudioFile:

Charles McCarry, a CIA operative for 10 years, offers up a Cold War espionage novel filled with insider information about amoral intelligence agents and agencies, covert operations, and offbeat characters. Paul Christopher, the central figure of several of McCarry's novels, is an original. An American spy who's nonviolent, intelligent, and skeptical about his work, Christopher must manage the publication of a dissident's novel, which could destroy the Soviet Union. Stefan Rudnicki navigates the complex plot, establishing both place and time expertly. From West Berlin to Rome to the Congo, in love scenes or in clandestine meetings, Rudnicki makes it all real. Written 20 years ago, this reissue boasts graceful writing that never misses its mark and a riveting performance by Rudnicki. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright � AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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