Season of Betrayal

by Margaret Lowrie Robertson

Overview

Snipers, shelling, car bombs, suicide attacks. This is Beirut 1983, and Lara McCauley is an outsider in a city at war. Against this chaotic canvas, Lara tries to hold her marriage together, but her life is quietly falling apart. Lara and Mac arrive to take up his new posting, not long after the Marines are sent in as peacekeepers to help restore stability in this fractured land, but the Marines quickly become embroiled in Lebanon's political problems. Her husband, Mac, an American journalist, has his hands full with work and a new circle of comrades in arms at the Commodore Hotel. Lonely and scared, Lara increasingly seeks out the friendship of a Polish journalist, and their desperate affair sets into motion events with unforeseen, fatal consequences.

A crisp, clear, tough voice reminiscent of Joan Didion's journalism. Her portrait of Beirut -- at once vivid and meticulous -- displays a reporter's gift for detail. --The Wall Street Journal

A captivating journey into war-torn Beirut --Anderson Cooper

Drawing on her years of experience as a foreign correspondent, Margaret Lowrie Robertson brings war-torn Beirut to life in this gripping debut....An exceptional first novel. 

For people who want to understand the roots of the anguishing story we're living through today in the Middle East. -- David Ignatius, columnist, The Washington Post

A powerful story... --Publsihers Weekly

Lara McCauley never wanted to go to Beirut. But in 1983, when her husband’s career as a foreign correspondent brings her there in the midst of the civil war, she tries to make the best of it for the sake of her marriage. Unlike the other foreign visitors—most of whom are hard-charging journalists like her husband—Lara can’t seem to find her footing in the chaotic city. Although she’s relatively insulated from risk, she’s as terrified of the frequent eruptions of violence as she is ashamed of her fear. Bored, lonely, and afraid, Lara defies her increasingly bullying husband by befriending a mysterious Polish journalist and beginning to work part-time as a broadcast film editor. But she is an inexperienced player in a dangerous game. As the U.S. Òmission of presenceÓ in Lebanon rapidly morphs into something far more deadly, Lara unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events with devastating consequences.Drawing on her years of experience as a foreign correspondent, Margaret Lowrie Robertson brings war-torn Beirut to life in this gripping debut. --Library Journal (Starred Review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780981932163
Publisher:	Tatra Press
Publication date:	01/26/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Robertson was an International Correspondent in CNN's London Bureau from 1993 to 2002, primarily covering British news and politics and other European-based stories. She covered the first Gulf War in 1991 and was one of the first female correspondents to report on live television from inside Iraq during the Allied bombing campaign. Earlier in her career, she was Cairo bureau manager for CBS News. Before shifting to broadcast journalism, Robertson freelanced for CBS News from Beirut, for National Public Radio from Poland -- contributed stories to the New York Times from Warsaw, Cairo and Beirut. Robertson is a graduate of Boston University. She is married to CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, widely known for his war reporting from around the world. They have two daughters, Lowrie and Nicky, and live in London. This is Robertson's first novel.

What People are Saying About This

Season of Betrayal captures the emotional intensity of a young woman's personal struggle in the face of a gruesome civil war. Filled with love, death, and fear, this riveting and dramatic portrayal will emotionally move the hearts and minds of every reader.—Chris Matthews, Host, NBC's The Chris Matthews Show and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews

Editorial Reviews

Lara McCauley, hopeful but, as she notes, "no longer naive" at 29, follows her war correspondent husband, Mac, to Beirut in 1983, when fault lines of international terrorism (then in its embryonic stages) ran through the city just as surely as the Green Line that separated Lebanon's warring factions. Lara, curious and loving, has little in common with seasoned journalist Mac, who has revealed himself over the years of their relationship as a selfish, possessive and abusive bully. When Mac begins an affair with his Lebanese translator, Lara finds a friend in another outsider: the mysterious Thomas Warkowski, a freelance journalist who's rumored to be a spy, and thought to be gay. With her marriage unraveling, and the city's mounting body count dismissed internationally as "Beirut-bang-bang," Lara beds Thomas with far-reaching and catastrophic consequences. Setting the story against the backdrop of a society cruelly tearing itself apart (and punctuating it with the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport), debut novelist Robertson draws a powerful story out of Lara's first-person narration. The author solidly dramatizes the ironies and ambiguities, moral and otherwise, of Lara's desperate encounters. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Lara McCauley is trapped in a failed marriage, but can't admit it yet. Her husband, Mac, an international news correspondent, is great company in public, but a bully and a womanizer in private. When Mac is assigned to Beirut in January 1983, Lara goes with him, but they barely settle in before Mac starts another affair. Lara tries but can't adjust to life in the middle of a war zone: she is perpetually terrified. Then, on October 23, 241 Americans and 58 French soldiers are massacred in suicide bombings at the U.S. Marine barracks and the quarters of the French Multi-National Force. Events move to a violent close, leaving Lara both betrayer and betrayed. There are no heroes in this wrenching novel; no one behaves well and everyone's motives are suspect. With years of experience in news broadcasting, including a year in Beirut as a stringer for CBS radio, Robertson writes with authenticity about a city and a people destroyed by civil war. The contrast she draws between the grand scale of the Lebanese civil war and the small scale of Lara's battle to win back Mac is quite effective. An exceptional first novel, gripping and real. Enthusiastically recommended for general collections. David Keymer, Modesto, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A marriage unravels along with the U.S. mission in Lebanon in 1983, in this debut from a former CNN correspondent. Lara McCauley arrives in Beirut in January 1983 with her husband, Mac, the new bureau chief for a major U.S. magazine. Narrator Lara, 29, is still the naive wifey who'll do anything to please, though she suspects Mac may have cheated on her. He's a classic chauvinist pig who humiliates Lara in public and wastes no time starting an affair with Nadia, his Lebanese translator, when he's not drinking with his "tribe," his fellow journalists at the Commodore Hotel. Lara finds a friend in Thomas, the half-Polish, half-Brazilian freelancer who's an old Beirut hand with an unrivaled network of sources. Gentle, erudite Thomas is rumored (correctly) to be gay, but Robertson fails to bring him into focus. Their innocent friendship enrages Mac, who rapes Lara ("forced bonding" is her phrase) while reeking of Nadia's scent. As her situation worsens, so does that of the American mission. The embassy is blown up in April, and the climax will come in October, when 241 Marines are killed at their airport camp. Robertson's historical framework is accurate enough, but she lacks the skills to dovetail Lara's story credibly with Lebanon's byzantine politics and feuding warlords. It doesn't help that Lara makes one dumb mistake after another, first having (or attempting to have) sex with Thomas, then having an indiscreet lunch with him at a mountain hotel, and finally, panicking over Mac's likely reaction, crossing the super-dangerous Green Line on foot, despite Thomas's entreaties. When Thomas disappears, Lara suspects Mac has had him killed, and is overwhelmed with guilt that she may haveunwittingly betrayed him. She takes a spectacular revenge on her husband, Mrs. Mouse becoming Lady Macbeth; but then, as she says, like Reagan back in Washington, she was only doing what she believed to be right. A harebrained melodrama.

Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR SEASON OF BETRAYAL

"Ms. Robertson writes with a crisp, clear, tough voice reminiscent of Joan Didion's journalism. Her portrait of Beirut--at once vivid and meticulous--displays a reporter's gift for detail." --The Wall Street Journal

"Season of Betrayal is a captivating journey into war-torn Beirut and the equally dangerous front lines of human relationships. Margaret Lowrie Robertson brings her keen reporter's eye to this evocative and moving story of love, loss, and of course betrayal." —Anderson Cooper

From the Publisher