Istanbul Passage: A Novel - Tapa blanda

"Reminiscent of the works of Graham Greene."--Alexander McCall Smith

"Istanbul Passage is a first-rate espionage novel, filled with complexity and thrills, but its greatest success may be in this much more universal literary exploration: how an ordinary man is transformed by extraordinary circumstances."--Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expats, in Publishers Weekly

"With dialogue that can go off like gunfire and a streak of nostalgia that feels timeless, this book takes its place among espionage novels as an instant classic."
--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Istanbul Passage bristles with authenticity. Joseph Kanon has a unique and admirable talent: he brilliantly marries suspense and historical fact, wrapping them around a core of pure human drama, while making it seem effortless. This isn't just talent; it's magic."--Olen Steinhauer, New York Times bestselling author of The Tourist

"A fast-moving, thinking man's thriller. . . tense and atmospheric [with] sinister intrigue."--The Wall Street Journal

"Intelligent plotting and vivid evocation of the city itself."--The New York Times Book Review

"Dialogue that can go off like gunfire...Takes its place among espionage novels as an instant classic."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Superbly crafted...A beautifully conceived and atmospheric thriller."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Offers access to the compromised milieu of a vivid metropolis in its first postwar winter, where everyone is trying to keep balance amid bad choices."--The Washington Post

"A masterful work that is as gripping as it is intelligent."--The Daily Beast

In the bestselling tradition of espionage novels by John LeCarre and Alan Furst, Istanbul Passage brilliantly illustrates why Edgar Award–winning author Joseph Kanon has been hailed as "the heir apparent to Graham Greene" (The Boston Globe).

Istanbul survived the Second World War as a magnet for refugees and spies. Even expatriate American Leon Bauer was drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs in support of the Allied war effort. Now as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of postwar life, Leon is given one last routine assignment. But when the job goes fatally wrong—an exchange of gunfire, a body left in the street, and a potential war criminal on his hands—Leon is trapped in a tangle of shifting loyalties and moral uncertainty.

Played out against the bazaars and mosques and faded mansions of this knowing, ancient Ottoman city, Istanbul Passage is the unforgettable story of a man swept up in the dawn of the Cold War, of an unexpected love affair, and of a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it.