Defectors

Author/Guide: Joseph Kanon

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1961: Some secrets should never be told

ISBN: 978-1471162619
Genre: Historical, legal/political, Spy story

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What you need to know before your trail

Moscow, 1961: With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union’s international prestige is at an all-time high. Former CIA agent Frank Weeks, the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, is about to publish his memoirs – what he reveals will send shock waves through the West. His defection in the early 1950s shook Washington to its core – and forced the resignation of his brother, Simon, from the State Department.

Simon, now a publisher in New York, is given the opportunity to read and publish his brother’s memoir. He knows the US government will never approve the publication of what is clearly intended as KGB propaganda. Yet the offer is irresistible: it will finally give him the chance to learn why his brother chose to betray his country.

But what he discovers in Moscow is far more shocking than he ever imagined …

Locations

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Travel Guide

Moscow in the 1960s

Moscow was at the height of the cold War in the 1960s – with the Bay of Pigs episode just around the corner, the Kennedy Assassination and Sputnik, the two major superpowers are at each other’s throats when they’re not eyeing each other suspiciously over the iron curtain that is.

Imagine then the atmosphere then when a CIA operative defects to the Soviet Union. Moscow is a city of shadows and mistrust but Frank leads a unique life with unwritten rules and a special sense of purpose. But is he the traitor in a time and place where there are no rules and suspicion dictates everything. The Kremlin is fearful and feared.

Novodevichy Convent

At the centre of the novel and marked on the map – this convent is a riverside monastery known for its fresco-lined 5-domed cathedral & ornate soaring bell tower, built in the 1520s. The cemetery of the same name nearby is a prominent 19th-century burial ground including the graves of Chekhov, Prokofiev & Khrushchev.

Spies are everywhere, Simon and Frank are followed – well this is the Moscow of the KGB. There are references and nods to real life spies, double crossing and intrigue that you don’t even see until it hits you in the face and doubles you over.