The Poet Game: A Novel

by Salar Abdoh

Overview

In the wake of the first World Trade Center bombing, New York City is the center of an intricate web of betrayals and double-crosses in the shadowy world of Muslim radicals. Sami Amir arrives in Brooklyn via Iran, and into a world of militants, arms suppliers, and spies. He is a counter-intelligence agent from a branch of the Iranian Ministry of Security. The son of an American mother, he has always stood apart from his fellow men. Now, because of his background, he is sent to New York to investigate rumored terrorist plots that are to culminate with further violence around Christmas and New Year's, two weeks away.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312209681
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	04/07/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Salar Abdoh is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and of the Creative Writing program at City College of New York. Born in Iran, he now lives in New York City where he is at work on his next novel.

What People are Saying About This

Eoin McNamee

"Critics pronounced the spy novel dead after the fall of the Berlin Wall; THE POET GAME shows that it is alive, well, and living in Manhattan. The voice is spare, clean, and insightful. I was reminded of classic noir-- there is a kind of murderous narcissism which belongs both to that genre and to the world of intelligence, and Salar Abdoh captures it brilliantly." --Eoin McNamee, author of RESURRECTION MAN

Editorial Reviews

Ornate and ambitious . . . [A] complex, politically sophisticated story.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The Poet Game offers its own taut, moody spin to the spy-genre conventions.... Abdoh delivers a surprising, smart thriller.” —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“The Poet Game is a spy-thriller with a twist . . . Unique.” —Christian Science Monitor

“Like a ventriloquist manipulating the stylish thrillers of Graham Greene or John le Carré, Abdoh tells [a] brilliant, dark tale . . . Imaginative.” —Brad Gooch, Harper's Bazaar

“The novel races through a series of atmospheric settings . . . Vividly described . . . An entertaining and heart-quickening debut.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Balancing bombing conspiracies and international arms trading with literary allusions and psychological intrigue, this debut spy novel aims high. Sami Amir is an Iranian with an American mother, a Catholic school education and a job as a translator. He is reluctantly pressed into counterintelligence service by a secret Iranian government agency and sent to New York City to infiltrate an Arab terrorist group called Section 19 that seems intent on committing acts of sabotage following the World Trade Center bombing. After a brief internment in a grungy Brooklyn tenement, he finds himself suspended dangerously in a struggle between American and Middle Eastern intelligence forces. He soon falls in love with one of his contacts in the States, an American spy/stripper named Ellena. As their romance progresses, Sami makes some startling discoveries--for starters, Ellena keeps a bomb under her bed--that put their affections to the test. Meanwhile, he manages to survive various attacks by terrorist thugs, striking back on occasion and eventually realizing he has been set up by his own employers. The novel races through a series of atmospheric settings--including a warehouse in Brooklyn, a public garden in the East Village and a political science conference at Columbia University--all sketched with a winning economy of detail. Operatives from a host of Middle Eastern countries are vividly described, too, and Abdoh's dialogue is tight, despite some lapses into self-conscious noir. Sami himself is an unusually sensitive action hero, with an appreciation of literature, an eye for poignant detail and a sentimental side. As he says, he believes he and Ellena are just "failed poets trying to get it right in the wrong trade," and samplings of Ellena's poetry appear throughout. Such attempts to infuse the story with higher meaning sometimes fall flat, but this is nevertheless an entertaining and heart-quickening debut. Agent, Watkins-Loomis. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Iranian American agent Sami Amir arrives in New York on a mission that seems simple--uproot any Iranian-backed terrorism before it can cause problems for the moderates in Tehran. But in a world of double crosses, betrayals, hidden agendas, and uncertain allegiances, Sami finds that nothing is as it seems. He works for the Office, an agency inside Iran that has infiltrated Section Nineteen of State Security. Is his real mission to eliminate Nur, a Pakistani bomber, or to assassinate the head of Section? Is the terrorist plot backed by an American arms trader or Libyans? Is the CIA involved? Does Ellena, his American contact, work for the Office, or is she actually out to bring it down? First novelist Abdoh asks an endless--and ultimately tiring--series of questions, but an intriguing protagonist redeems the overly complicated plot. For larger collections.--Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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