hardcover, 304 pages
Published Feb. 12, 2019 by Random House.
What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? One woman struggles to choose between her honor and her heart in this enthralling espionage drama that deftly hops between New York and West Africa.
It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant, but she's also a young black woman working in an old boys' club. Her career has stalled out, she's overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she's given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Thomas is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving …
What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? One woman struggles to choose between her honor and her heart in this enthralling espionage drama that deftly hops between New York and West Africa.
It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant, but she's also a young black woman working in an old boys' club. Her career has stalled out, she's overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she's given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Thomas is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving over the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she's being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent.
In the year that follows, Marie will observe Thomas, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.
Inspired by true events -- Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa's Che Guevara” -- this novel knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you've never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.
Mer underholdende enn god. Tidshistorisk interessant med Thomas Sankara og Burkina Faso som småfrekt tema. Som thriller uforløst og lite intens, som fortelling fascinerende og samtidig veldig konstruert. Som mange amerikanske bestselgere litt skrivekursaktig i konstruksjonen. Anbefalt av Obamas bokklubb, akkurat det er mest en kuriositet.
I enjoyed that the book spent a lot of time in Burkina Faso, but otherwise I struggled to understand how or why the main character could be a spy (or why she needed to be, like her older sister), notwithstanding her attempt to answer this question, in the closing pages of the book, in response to a character who asks. I am also prejudiced against second-person narrations and epistolary novels, and this is both.
A little slow through the first half, but picks up pace in later sections. Great story and perspective. Fun to see little flashes of NYC from the 70s and 80s. Also interesting as a historical fiction involving the CIA and America's Cold War and "counter insurgency" tactics (trying to squash any developments of big bad communism - I enjoyed reading [b:The Imagineers of War|30780220|The Imagineers of War The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World|Sharon Weinberger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476317653l/30780220.SX50.jpg|51368531] alongside this book).
