Book
Agent 6
First published 2011
Moscow, 1965. Leo Demidov is refused permission to accompany Raisa and their daughters on a Soviet peace tour to New York, where official cultural exchange is entangled with intelligence interests and American racial politics. A carefully managed encounter with a prominent Black singer and activist ends in murder, and the authorities on both sides impose an explanation that Leo cannot accept. Prevented from investigating, he loses the family life that had given purpose to his break with the security services.
Leo’s search for the truth extends across decades. The trail eventually takes him into Afghanistan during the Soviet war, where he works amid military occupation, insurgency and competing intelligence operations. The novel broadens the trilogy from Stalinist policing to the international machinery of the Cold War, but its central motive remains personal: Leo must distinguish evidence from the narratives governments manufacture. His pursuit of the elusive Agent 6 becomes a final reckoning with loyalty, grief and the political uses made of individual lives.
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