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A Map of Betrayal Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the award-winning author of Waiting: a spare, haunting tale of espionage and conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries-China and the United States-and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. When Lilian Shang, born and raised in America, discovers her father's diary after the death of her parents, she is shocked by the secrets it contains. She knew that her father, Gary, convicted decades ago of being a mole in the CIA, was the most important Chinese spy ever caught. But his diary-an astonishing chronicle of his journey from 1949 Shanghai to Okinawa to Langley, Virginia-reveals the pain and longing that his double life entailed. The trail leads Lilian to China, to her father's long-abandoned other family, whose existence she and her Irish American mother never suspected. As Lilian begins to fathom her father's dilemma-torn between loyalty to his motherland and the love he came to feel for his adopted country-she sees how his sense of duty distorted his life. But as she starts to understand that Gary, too, had been betrayed, she finds that it is up to her to prevent his tragedy from damaging yet another generation of her family.
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“Regaland direct, Angela Lin’s performance suits this audiobook’s spare and simplestyle…Lin becomes protagonist LilianShang…Lin offers asteady pace and a consistent tone during narrative sections. She’s at her bestwhen she creates the dialogue of the many varied characters. In presentingdistinct and honest voices that sound alive and realistic, both her voice andher interpretation of the text shine.”
— AudioFile
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“Ha Jin has captured the painful, often humdrum essence of the hidden agent…We see America through the eyes of a Chinese émigré, torn between an old loyalty and growing affection for the adopted land he is betraying. Simultaneously, we see China through the eyes of his daughter, discovering whatever she can about the family her father left behind.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A Map of Betrayal is an innovative twist on an immigrant novel, exploring themes of identity, assimilation, and confused loyalties through the high-stakes narrative of a spy novel…A poignant novel that portrays the emotional drama of an immigrant torn apart by conflicting loyalties and ‘bone-deep loneliness”…It should strike many close to home.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“A woman’s inquisition into the limits of her father’s loyalty to his nation and family…Jin’s subtle prose entrances.”
— Publishers Weekly (boxed and starred review) -
“A meticulous observation of a manipulated life only partially lived…Spy story it may be, but what lingers is the immeasurable human toil.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
“Masterful and bittersweet storytelling that operates on a number of different levels…Satisfies like the best of John le Carré, similarly demystifying and deglamorizing the process of gathering information and the ambiguous morality that operates in shades of gray.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“Ha Jin presents a chillingly matter-of-fact tale of espionage and treachery…A sharply ironic, stealthily devastating tale of the tragic cost of ‘blind’ patriotism, told by a master of clarifying fiction, uniting the personal and the geopolitical.”
— Booklist (starred review)
Awards
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One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2014
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A New York Times Editor’s Choice
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About Ha Jin
Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of eight novels, four story collections, a book of essays, and six books of poetry. He received the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the Flannery O’Connor Award, among others. His novel War Trash was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2014 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is director of the creative writing program at Boston University.
About Angela Lin
Angela Lin, an Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA degree in drama. A critically acclaimed actress, her credits include The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, and As the World Turns, among others.