The Persian
A Novel
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4.2 • 111 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From former CIA analyst and best-selling author David McCloskey, a novel that takes readers deep into the shadow war between Iran and Israel.
Kamran Esfahani, a dentist living out a dreary existence in Stockholm, agrees to spy for the Mossad after he’s recruited by Arik Glitzman, the chief of a clandestine unit tasked with running targeted assassinations and sabotage inside Iran. At Glitzman’s direction, Kam returns to his native Tehran and opens a dental practice there, using it as a cover for the Israeli intelligence agency. Kam proves to be a skillful asset, quietly earning money helping Glitzman smuggle weapons, run surveillance, and conduct kidnappings. But when Kam tries to recruit an Iranian widow seeking to avenge the death of her husband at the hands of the Mossad, the operation goes terribly wrong, landing him in prison under the watchful eye of a sadistic officer whom he knows only as the “General.”
And now, after enduring three years of torture in captivity, Kamran Esfahani sits in an interrogation room across from the General, preparing to write his final confession.
Kam knows it is too late to save himself. But he has managed to keep one secret—only one—and he just might be able to save that. In this haunting thriller, careening between Tehran and Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Stockholm, David McCloskey delivers an intricate story of vengeance, deceit, and the power of love and forgiveness in a world of lies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Persian Jewish dentist Kamran "Kam" Esfahani, the protagonist of this taut political thriller from McCloskey (The Seventh Floor), is counting down the days until he has enough money to leave Sweden for sunny California. So when Arik Glitzman, head of the Mossad's Caesarea Division, offers to pay him a fortune to sow chaos in Iran, he can't say no. Trading the monotony of dentistry for the perils of espionage, he runs a sham dental practice in Tehran as a cover for smuggling weapons and conducting surveillance. Meanwhile, Glitzman hunts a terrorist network targeting Jews in Israel. Complications ensue when Kam enlists double agent Roya Shabani, a widow bent on avenging her Iranian scientist husband who was killed by the Mossad, to help in his mission. As loyalties blur and the mission unravels, Kam lands in prison, and much of the novel is framed as his final confession. Intricately plotted and populated with multidimensional characters whose complicated motives drive them to desperation, the novel deftly balances geopolitical tensions and human stakes. Fans of John le Carré will have a tough time putting this down.
Customer Reviews
Not as engaging…
As his prior 2 books, slow pace, less suspense.
Great story
This book had everything. Action, suspense, spies and romance. Can’t wait to read again in a year or so.