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Ilium: A novel Audiobook
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Set in the dark world of international espionage, from London to Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret: the gripping and suspenseful story of a young woman who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long overdue finale of a covert special op
The young English narrator of Lea Carpenter’s dazzling new novel has grown up unhappily in London, dreaming of escape, pretending to be someone else and obsessed with a locked private garden. On the eve of her twenty-first birthday, at a party near that garden, she meets its charismatic and mysterious new owner, Marcus, thirty-three years older, who sweeps her off her feet. Before long they are married at his finca in Mallorca, and at last she has escaped into a new role – but at what price? On their honeymoon in Croatia, Marcus reveals there is something she can do for him—a plan is in place and she can help with “a favor.”
This turns out to be posing as an art advisor to a family on Cap Ferret, where Marcus asks her to simply “listen.” A helicopter deposits her at a remote, highly guarded and lavishly appointed compound on a spit of land in the Atlantic. It’s presided over by an enigmatic, charming patriarch Edouard, along with his wife Dasha, children Nikki and Felix, and populated by a revolving cast of other guests—some suspicious, some intriguing, perhaps none, like her, what they seem.
Brilliantly compelling, this is a spellbinding and unexpectedly poignant story of a long- planned, high-stakes CIA-Mossad operation that only needed the right asset to complete.
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"Carpenter’s unnamed narrator is the perfect pawn in a game of revenge and, perhaps, atonement set in the rarefied worlds of a private London garden, an isolated French retreat, Paris hotels, and at its core, a Beirut war zone.... Carpenter’s narrator is critical to the success of their plan and is thrust into a diabolically intricate web of spycraft with lethal and long-term results. Espionage thrillers are notably high octane, but Carpenter takes a refreshingly cerebral, literary, and cunningly cinematic approach in her exploration of personal moral ambiguity playing out in the world of international intrigue."
— Booklist, starred review“With its dreamily detached narration and elliptical feel, Carpenter’s third novel . . . is less interested in spy vs. spy . . . than the lack of reliable truths in people’s lives and the ways they allow themselves to be formed by events beyond their control. . . . An edgy confessional novel with the trappings of spy fiction.
Quotes
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Sharp and riveting, Ilium is a literary novel that reads like a psychological thriller. As a masterful and beguiling storyteller, Lea Carpenter is the perfect guide for this journey to a secret place of intrigue and betrayals.
— Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose -
A spellbinding espionage novel. Carpenter’s nuanced understanding of character and identity raises profound questions about love, loss, and the reality of war. Ilium is both mesmerizing and sublime.
— Clémence Michallon, author of The Quiet Tenant -
Ilium goes well beyond offering an exciting take on espionage literature. Lea Carpenter has built an entirely new wing onto the genre. Intricate, propulsive, rendered with deft emotion, this female-centric spy story has a deeply human heart.
— Christopher Bollen, author of The Lost Americans -
Spellbindingly-plotted and told in frank, elegant prose, Ilium is a beautiful book about love and war and innocence lost. Carpenter’s depiction of espionage is captivating, while the questions the novel surfaces about identity are perfectly devastating.
— Lisa Taddeo, author of Animal -
Here is the beating heart of a great espionage novel: devious manipulations and moral ambiguity within intimate relationships, with life-or-death consequences. Ilium delivers it all, plus glamorous international settings, complex characters, and sparkling prose. A tremendously satisfying read.
— Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon -
"A lonely young London woman is unknowingly drawn into a high-stakes intelligence campaign by the man she marries... Carpenter's third novel... is less interested in spy vs. spy or good vs. bad (both sides are equally capable of the worst) than the lack of reliable truths in people's lives and the ways they allow themselves to be formed by events beyond their control.
— Kirkus, starred -
Here is the beating heart of a great espionage novel: devious manipulations and moral ambiguity within intimate relationships, with life-or-death consequences. Ilium delivers it all, plus glamorous international settings, complex characters, and sparkling prose. A tremendously satisfying read.
— Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon -
Refreshingly cerebral, literary, and cunningly cinematic . . . [Ilium is an] exploration of personal moral ambiguity playing out in the world of international intrigue.
— Booklist, starred review“With its dreamily detached narration and elliptical feel, Carpenter’s third novel . . . is less interested in spy vs. spy . . . than the lack of reliable truths in people’s lives and the ways they allow themselves to be formed by events beyond their control. . . . An edgy confessional novel with the trappings of spy fiction. -
"Ilium is an espionage thriller in its richly wrought and detailed plot; but its spotlight falls centrally on the narrator herself, whose yearning for a role to play earns her a bigger one than she could have imagined. The dreamy tone of this sparkling, riveting story sets up a memorable counterpoint to its intrigue. A lonely young woman falls in love and finds herself at the center of a spy mission in this mesmerizing, moving story about different kinds of seduction.
— Shelf Awareness -
Ilium is a masterful literary novel posing as a spy novel, and succeeds brilliantly on both levels.
— BookPage, starred review
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About Lea Carpenter
Lea Carpenter graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was valedictorian. She is an author and a contributing editor at Esquire and has written the screenplay for Mile 22, a film about the CIA’s Special Activities Division, directed by Peter Berg.