A Maxim Jakubowski selected title.
A fascinating departure for Bezmozgis who had quickly established itself as a superior chronicler of Jewish immigration to North America and now turns his talents to an ambiguous tale of politics, full of familiar espionnage tropes but remains as ever a spinner of delicate tales of human frailties leavened by a wry sense of humour. A Russian scientist who has made a new life in Israel is embroiled in scandal and flees with his young mistress to the backwaters of a Crimea Black Sea resort, only to face the stuff of personal nightmares. A moral thriller that pits the integrity of the individual against the demands of a corrupt society, this is both gripping and supremely entertaining, without ever neglecting the human factor that was so dear to someone like Graham Greene.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
| Recommendations: |
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The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis: read it in a sitting; remember it for the rest of your life. This unforgettable novel squanders no words in its brilliant, deft depictions of love, of memory, of compassion and, ultimately, despite its title, of loyalty . (Edith Pearlman). Taut, fierce, forensically insightful. Compulsive and profound . (A D Miller). A moral thriller . (Aleksandar Hemon). Definitively establishes him as one of the foremost writers of his generation . (Ben Fountain). Two men meet on a park bench in Jerusalem: a politician, on the eve of a controversial stand against his government, and a Mossad agent, sent to dissuade him with the threat of blackmail. Neither backs down. Escaping the furore he's unleashed, the politician and his lover head to Crimea and a resort on the Black Sea to lie low. But the fierce battle between political principles and personal loyalties has followed them to this faded Russian backwater, and a shocking encounter awaits them. In its depiction of a man whose principles are tested to the utmost extremes, The Betrayers cuts to the very heart of our troubled times. David Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1973 and emigrated with his parents to Toronto in 1980. His first novel, The Free World, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His collection Natasha and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won the Commonwealth Writers' Regional Prize for First Book. In 2010 he was selected as one of the New Yorker's '20 under 40', celebrating the twenty most promising fiction writers under the age of forty. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages.
The Betrayers features in the following genres: Thriller and Suspense, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, Recommendations
The Betrayers is available in Paperback
The Betrayers was written by David Bezmozgis and published by Penguin Books Ltd
The Betrayers has 240 pages
£14.39
