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"From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Stardust, The Good German, and Los Alamos--a gripping tale of an American undercover agent in 1945 Istanbul who descends into the murky cat-and-mouse world of compromise and betrayal that will come to define the entire post-war era. A neutral capital straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul has spent the war as a magnet for refugees and spies. Even American businessman Leon Bauer has been drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs and courier runs for the Allied war effort. Now as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of post-war life, he is given one more assignment, a routine job that goes fatally wrong, plunging him into a tangle of intrigue and moral confusion. Played out against the bazaars and mosques and faded mansions of this knowing, ancient Ottoman city, Leon's attempt to save one life leads to a desperate manhunt and a maze of shifting loyalties that threatens his own. How do you do the right thing when there are only bad choices to make? Istanbul Passage is the story of a man swept up in the aftermath of war, an unexpected love affair, and a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it. Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Joseph Kanon's latest novel flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller about the dawn of the Cold War, once again proving why Kanon has been hailed as the 'heir apparent to Graham Greene' (The Boston Globe)"--… (more)
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Even with the war ended, many Jews need assistance getting out of countries like Romania, and Istanbul is a crossroads for political operations of the Americans, Russians and Turks. Leon is caught in the middle, including investigating himself (with others not knowing his role in the events) for a good part of the book. Post-war Istanbul is beautifully evoked, both at the high end with the diplomatic community, gardens and mosques, and in the everyday streets and alleys and markets. Fans of Graham Greene and Alan Furst are likely to enjoy this one.
Leon's other life is on the fringes of the intelligence community. He does occasional side jobs, mostly package deliveries, for a friend at the U.S. consulate. But when he gets an assignment to pick up a human package from a fishing boat one night, the job goes very wrong. Now, Leon has left the fringes of the murky world of espionage and is left stranded in its dangerous center, not knowing who he can trust, and improvising to complete his task on his own.
It turns out that Leon has a talent for acting as a lone agent, keeping his own counsel and observing everyone in his life to try to figure out what went wrong at the pickup, who might have been involved and who they might represent, all while he's working hard to figure out how to get Alexei, his human package, out of Turkey. Now he looks at everyone differently. Might there be a traitor at the consulate? Is an old friend a Russian agent? What about the hostess whose parties bring together people from all countries and interests; the guy who forges documents; the police investigator; Altan, the scrupulously-polite-but-threatening commander from Turkey's secret police; even those closest to Leon?
Leon may be new to the ruthless world of the secret agent, but is soon drawn into its moral ambiguities and compromises; using friends, even when it places them in danger, even as he learns how unworthy Alexei is of his help.
Joseph Kanon excels at drawing a picture of the immediate postwar period. Europe's cities are in ruins, loyalties in flux, power shifting and nobody knowing what the new world will look like. He's done it before in his novels, especially in The Good German and Alibi: A Novel, probably the novels most similar to Istanbul Passage. Though the mood may be the same, this is a different location, and one that adds a lot to the story. Istanbul has always been a divided city; east and west, Muslim, Christian, Jewish. In the 20th century no longer a world power, it sat uneasily between Germany and Russia during the war, and now it must walk a tightrope between the new powers, Russia and the United States. Istanbul is the perfect setting for this story and Kanon brings it alive, from the street bazaars to the bathhouses, the mosques, the back streets, the cafés where people sip tea from tulip glasses, the yalis--villas--on the waterfront, and the mysteriously beautiful and dangerous Bosphorus.
The title, Istanbul Passage, is well chosen. It can refer to to Leon's passage from almost an errand boy to a rogue agent, from a black-and-white moralist to somebody who reluctantly, and to his chagrin, learns from Alexei and Altan what it takes to survive when you're on your own. Or the title may refer to Istanbul's history as a place where people are bought, sold and smuggled. Throughout the war and afterward, the city served as a passage for refugees, especially Jewish refugees, to escape to a new life. And that Jewish refugee theme forms a part of this story as well.
This is not a shoot-em-up, action-packed thriller, but one that puts you into its time and place and in the mind of a man trying to figure out where his loyalties lie within it, and what choice to make when all the alternatives are bad.
At one point a character in Kanon’s book points out that the Westerners view Istanbul as a bridge between Europe and Asia, but for the Turks, and for the Ottomans in their day, it is the center, not a place to pass through. That tension pervades the novel. The plot revolves around characters seeking passage through Istanbul to escape horrors behind them, either of their own or others’ making. Other characters strive to maintain Turkey’s tenuous hold on living in the center. The main character, Leon, may make a passage or he may join the centuries of tangled roots clinging to Istanbul. In the process he makes a rite of passage through moral compromises and idealistic choices, betrayals and loyalties, that is so subtle and sophisticated the reader never loses interest.
Leon, we hope along with him, is a good man—at least an ordinary man like us who can rise to the occasion when called upon. He’s easy to identify with, but what a tangled mess he gets into without there being an identifiable moment that tripped him up. We know we could have gotten there just as easily. He clings to the notion of doing right—but right for whom? His country? An adrenalin high? Displaced Jews? His wife? During the war, spying and death were easy to justify, but what now?
Then there’s Alexei. Not a good man, not ever, we fear. The classic bad guy, torturing Jews out of racial hatred, inherent badness, a man who kills without remorse. Why should Leon help such a man? Does he have information worth preserving? Does every man deserve to live? Does Leon find it impossible to be responsible for his death—no more reason than that fundamentally moral position? Leon’s most morally admirable friend tells him to turn Alexei over to his enemies who will kill him. Then glimmers of some other sort of man show through as Kanon develops Alexei. Do we feel sympathy for him? Was there a time when he was good but that is past, or do men, like cities, carry their layers forever existent simultaneously? It’s a cliché, but life is complicated. Kanon excels at making us feel that in our bones. Complicated, but also exciting.
Even the trees in Istanbul Passage tell the story—along the Bosphorus the Judas trees will bloom again, flowers hiding the betrayals. Is that enough to make life worth living? This suspenseful, full-bodied novel will hold you in a thoughtful embrace.
The time is World War II. The place is Istanbul. There are Turks, Americans, Russians, Romanians, Jews, etc. It's a mish-mosh. But it's interesting...albeit confusing at times.
Stick with it.
Leon has been sent to do a straight-forward pickup. Meet a boat bringing in a man and take him to a safe destination. When it all goes wrong Leon finds he has killed a man and must now ensure the safety of his package. But his 'package' is more than he knows, perhaps a man not worth saving, and a man that every side wants.
Kanon brings out a new book approximately every three years. Each one is worth the wait and Istanbul Passage is no exception.
The novel is composed of seven separate sections, each named for a different Turkish location and the action that occurred there. It begins with a scene in which two men are waiting for a boat to arrive with a secret passenger. Soon it becomes apparent that they are both engaged in work of a clandestine nature. During World War II they were involved in espionage work. It seems that post-war, they are still somewhat engaged in those activities. They, and their families, have both been permanently scarred by the effects of the war, and they are motivated by that pain to continue their efforts.
Leon, who works for a tobacco company in his public life, works for the Americans, on the side, in his secret life. He is awaiting the arrival of a Romanian, a victim of the war, but he knows nothing else about the objective of his mission or about the man. Who was this person? Was he a friend or an enemy? Was he a criminal, a killer, a Jew? Who was he rescuing and why? Leon just blindly followed his orders. Mihai, who works for the Mossad, rescuing Jews, before and after the Holocaust, is doing Leon a favor because he speaks Romanian, and there is a possibility that an interpreter will be necessary. Leon’s wife used to work with Mihai and is now in a sanitarium. Her mind has shut down from all that she has witnessed. When Leon visits, she neither reacts nor responds. She has retreated into a world no one else can enter. It is from his visits and monologues with her that we learn more about Leon and his past.
When, suddenly, men attached to the American Consulate are murdered, Leon becomes involved and is thrust into a larger plot. He is drawn into the maze of the investigative machinery of the Turks and the deeper undercover work of the Americans. There are bad apples everywhere, and at first he is shocked and ill equipped to deal with the work on so sophisticated a level. However, we soon learn that he is a quick study, and the reader is also suddenly more aware. The previous opacity becomes clearer for them too, and the story really takes off in several exciting directions.
The story emphasizes the fact that spies are everywhere and they are all watching each other. It is an unending game of chess using people instead of inanimate pieces. The Turks are watching, the Russians are watching, the Israelis are watching and the Americans are watching; they each have their own agenda and brand of tactics, some much more brutal than others. Can anyone be trusted? Can anyone be bought for services if the stakes are high enough? Is survival the ultimate motive?
Once in the game, is there any exit from it? In the end, who can Leon trust, his friends or his enemies, or perhaps both? Was everyone compromised? Does each serve their own purpose? Is everyone simply using each other? Is the enemy the only one he could truly trust, because they both were the ticket for each other's survival?
The relationships between the characters seemed too incestuous at times. Coincidence sometimes played an unrealistic role. The writing style was confusing with the short staccato sentences. Still, I couldn’t put it down so the writer accomplished his purpose. He wrote a really good, action-packed book, and the ending was not obvious at all, so it held me until the final page.
Finally, I was left with some compelling questions. There was so much betrayal. Was it all worth it? Is there ever a good purpose to spying or a good conclusion? Is the spy a willing conspirator or a captive audience with no choice once he gets in because he gets in too deep? Is there always an innocent victim? Do the means really justify the end? Perhaps the road to Hell is truly paved with good intentions.
I probably should have researched it a little more, Kanons
In this book It took me a long time to get into it, almost halfway through and, had it not been a book to review I would have given up sooner. I was confused most of the time, there are a lot of people and information to keep up with, many countries and towns, it seemed like a very sad book about a man who was hoodwinked by people he was supposedly friends with. His wife was in an institution from the horrors of war and it ended as it began… on a sad note.
My mother loved this book, she is a spy junkie and I don’t want to turn anyone off who would love this book too, it is just that I did not.
If you don’t know much about Turkey
An American living in post-World War II Turkey gets unintentionally involved in politics and spies after he accidentally commits a murder. He learns that no one is really who they say they are in post-World War II Istanbul. Bad guys are good guys and vice versa. And you’re never really sure.
Thank you again to Joseph Kanon. You’re still on my list of favorite authors.
It's in the early days of post-WWll and Leon, an American "businessman" is asked by his local Consulate boss to meet an unidentified man arriving late at night via fishing boat. And a simple pick-up is suddenly not so simple. Now there's a dead body, and the police are asking embarrassing questions. As is the national security agency, Emniyet. And there are the Russians. And before long you realize you are reading a winner.
Leon has his personal problems as well. His beloved wife is convalescing in a local clinic and has not been responsive for months. He secretly meets with Marina every Thursday afternoon, and then there's Kay, wife of his new boss.
Leon knows Istanbul, its history, landmarks and alleys. And he is very resourceful. So while he is not a full-time agent, much less a spy, he soon is engaged with a couple of them, and learns quickly. But what he is not prepared for are the choices, particularly when all the options are bad ones.
I have read a lot of spy fiction over the years and I haven't read anything better than "Istanbul Passage" since Le Carre's stuff in the early and mid 60's. Enjoy !
The story is fast paced and rather anxious, in the way most thrillers are supposed to be. The balancing act that Turkey employed during the war is captured well by Kanon, though perhaps explained a few too many times at different occasions. As always, our hero, Leon, is too good. I am not sure if he has to be that good for us to root for him; Kanon is certainly capable of writing morally atrocious characters, like Alexie, and still manage to make us feel for them. One of the reasons why I do not read this genre much is I can usually guess what will happen, and several plots twists in Istanbul Passage were too obvious for me. This doesn't mean I did not enjoy them as they happened, though, which is Kanon's talent. Another strength of the narrative is the dialog, which is rather realistic and not written to solely explain things to the reader.
I seem to keep buying books by Joseph Kanon, beguiled by enticing blurb on the back cover. Perhaps one day I might even manage to finish one! Failing that, I might at least remember the next time I see one in
1940's Istanbul is the main character in this book. You really get the atmosphere of the place while you visit a lot of the neighborhoods and attractions, and get taken into the life of the city at that time. At least the life of the foreigners who were living there then.
The plot is well constructed and engrossing. The main character is an American who was in Istanbul during the war and did some minor courrier-type work for American intelligence at that time. At the beginning of the book, he is asked to meet a defector who is being smuggled into Istabul from Soviet controlled territory and who will be taken to the U.S. But that mission goes badly wrong, people die and the hero ends up with the defector and with his American contact no longer around to help. He has to try to get him out of the country on his own. That's the main plot line, there is alot more going on at the same time.
I was drawn into the story and read the book very quickly. Now ready to start the new book.
The end is on the one hand surprising and the other hand you can sense it.