Robert Littell was born, raised, and educated in New York. A former Newsweek editor specializing in Soviet affairs, he left journalism in 1970 to write fiction full time. Connoisseurs of the spy novel have elevated Robert Littell to the genre's highest ranks, and Tom Clancy wrote that if Robert Littell didn t invent the spy novel, he should have. He is the author of fifteen novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Company and Legends, the 2005 L.A. Times Book Award for Best Thriller/Mystery. He currently lives in France."
"Compulsive reading from start to finish" The Boston Globe"Hugely
entertaining...a serious look at how our nation exercises
power...popular fiction at its finest." The Washington Post Book
World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out
to be one of the best." Chicago Tribune"Reads like a
breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the
Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." Newsweek"If Robert
Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." Tom
Clancy"
"Compulsive reading from start to finish" The Boston Globe"Hugely
entertaining...a serious look at how our nation exercises
power...popular fiction at its finest." The Washington Post Book
World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out
to be one of the best." Chicago Tribune"Reads like a
breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the
Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." Newsweek"If Robert
Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." Tom
Clancy"
"Compulsive reading from start to finish" --The Boston Globe"Hugely
entertaining...a serious look at how our nation exercises
power...popular fiction at its finest." --The Washington Post Book
World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out
to be one of the best." --Chicago Tribune"Reads like a
breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the
Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." --Newsweek"If Robert
Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have."
--Tom Clancy
This impressive doorstopper of a book is like a family historical saga, except that the family is the American intelligence community. It has all the appropriate characters and tracks them over 40 years: a rogue uncle, the Sorcerer, a heavy-drinking chief of the Berlin office in the early Cold War days; a dashing hero, Jack McAuliffe, who ages gracefully and never loses his edge; a dastardly turncoat, who for the sake of the reader will not be identified here, but who dies nobly; a dark genius, the real-life James Jesus Angleton, who after the disclosure that an old buddy, British spy Kim Philby, had been a Russian agent all along, became a model of paranoia; a Russian exchange student who starts out with our heroes at Yale but then works for "the other side"; and endless assorted ladyfolk, wives, girlfriends and gutsy daughters who are not portrayed with anything like the gritty relish of the men. Littell, an old hand at the genre (he wrote the classic The Defection of A.J. Lewinter) keeps it all moving well, and there are convincing set pieces: the fall of Budapest, the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba and an eerily prescient episode in Afghanistan, in which a character obviously modeled on Osama bin Laden appears, accompanied by a sidekick whose duty is to slay him instantly if his capture by the West seems imminent. It's gung-ho, hard-drinking, table-turning fun, even if a little old-fashioned now that we have so many other problems to worry about than the Russians but it brings back vividly a time when they seemed a real threat. There are some breathtaking real-life moments with the Kennedy brothers, and with a bumbling Reagan, and with Vladimir Putin, now the leader of Russia, who is here given a background that is extremely shady. (Apr.) Forecast: The Afghanistan element will lend itself to handselling, but that will be only icing on the cake of Overlook's full-tilt publicity campaign, which will include national ad/promo, a TV/radio satellite tour and an author tour. Along with Littell's reputation among critics and spy-lit cognescenti, it should all add up to a breakout book with serious bestseller potential. And Overlook's planned reprinting in hardcover of all of Littell's work, beginning with The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, should keep Littell's name in readers' minds for years to come. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
"Compulsive reading from start to finish" The Boston
Globe"Hugely entertaining...a serious look at how our nation
exercises power...popular fiction at its finest." The Washington
Post Book World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written
turns out to be one of the best." Chicago Tribune"Reads like a
breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the
Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." Newsweek"If Robert
Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." Tom
Clancy"
"Compulsive reading from start to finish" The Boston Globe
"Hugely entertaining...a serious look at how our nation exercises power...popular fiction at its finest." The Washington Post Book World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out to be one of the best." Chicago Tribune"Reads like a breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." Newsweek"If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." Tom Clancy"
"Hugely entertaining...a serious look at how our nation exercises power...popular fiction at its finest." --The Washington Post Book World"As it happens, this longest spy novel ever written turns out to be one of the best." --Chicago Tribune"Reads like a breeze...guaranteed to suck you right back into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of spy vs. spy." --Newsweek"If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." --Tom Clancy
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