Robert Littell creates a multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic saga of the ClA - The Company to insiders. The fictional and historical characters of Robert Littell's novel reveal much of the nearly 50 years of this complex and powerful organization. At the heart is a mole hunt involving the CIA, M16, KGB, and Mossad, a stunningly conceived trip down the rabbit hole to the labyrinthine Alice-in-Wonderland world of espionage, a world where things have no names.
Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the '50s, the front line of the simmering Cold War Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, formidable.
Littell also lays bare the internecine warfare within The Company itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game. An atmosphere of distrust pits the counter-intelligence agents behind the desks in Washington, like the utterly obsessive real-life mole hunter James Jesus Angleton, against the covert action boys in the field, like The Company's Harvey Torriti, The Sorcerer, a brilliant and brash rules breaker, and his Apprentice, Jack McAuliffe, recruited fresh out of Yale, who learns both tradecraft and the hard truths of life in the field.
As this dazzling anatomy of the CIA unfolds, nothing less than the future is at stake. And the future is often only the day after tomorrow. At once a celebration of a long Cold War well fought and an elegy for the end of an era.
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"This is the book that the movie The Good Shepherd was based on, but if you read it looking for Matt Damon's character, he isn't there, nor is much of his story line. At the same time, this is a well-written, good-time. I can't decide if it's Littell's skills with words or my current need for distraction (probably both!), but this was the perfect read for me right now. I told a good friend that I had to keep reminding myself that it's a novel and not a work of non-fiction. I recommend it whole-heartedly (especially in this election-charged time...)."
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Lynda (5 out of 5 stars)