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    Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity
    Unavailable
    Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity
    Unavailable
    Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity
    Ebook367 pages7 hours

    Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity

    By Robert Littell

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “A searing, thrilling, intelligent and often blackly funny book . . . [by] the finest American writer of espionage fiction” (John Connolly, #1 internationally-bestselling author of Woman in the Woods).
     
    Under the leadership of a visionary woman president of the United States, the global community brokers a major compromise between Israel and the Palestinian authority in the hopes of snuffing out the violent flash-point that fuels the flames of global terrorism. But then, Isaac Apfulbaum, a well-known fundamentalist rabbi, is taken hostage by Dr. al-Saath, a legendary Palestinian terrorist, who demands the release of several Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his captive.
     
    As Israel coaxes Elihu—a former Mossad officer—out of retirement to hunt down the terrorist who motivated his final mission, al-Saath and Apfulbaum find themselves building an extraordinary relationship between hostage taker and hostage: parallels between these two battle-hardened partisans become the bonds that could lead to reconciliation. But the Mossad strike team is closing in . . .
     
    Ferociously suspenseful and brilliantly topical, Vicious Circle is a thriller that, like The Company before it, breaks down an entire culture of violence into the corrupted consciences that embody it.
     
    “Muscularly plotted suspense.” —The Washington Post
     
    “A tale to hold its own with . . . John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl . . . and Robert Stone’s Damascus Gate.” —Booklist (starred review)
     
    “[A] suspenseful and serious thriller.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 19, 2006
    ISBN9781590208304
    Unavailable
    Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity
    Author

    Robert Littell

    Connoisseurs of the literary spy thriller have elevated Robert Littell to the genre's highest ranks - along with John le Carre, Len Deighton and Graham Greene. Littell's novels include The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, The October Circle, Mother Russia, The Amateur (which was made into a feature film), The Company, An Agent in Place and Walking Back the Cat. A former Newsweek journalist, Robert Littell is American, currently living in France.

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    Reviews for Vicious Circle

    3.5/5

    37 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An Israeli government minister is assassinated in the home of his mistress. Days later, Elihu, an aging and decorated Mossad officer, leads his final combat mission, killing a Hamas leader in his bed—and barely escaping with his life. Out of this familiarly cyclical scenario emerges what is perhaps Robert Littell's most heartfelt and suspenseful novel. The action moves into the near future, when the global community, united under the leadership of a visionary female president of the United States, brokers a major compromise between Israel and the Palestinian authority in the hopes of snuffing out the violent flashpoint that fuels the flames of global terrorism. But then, Isaac Apfulbaum, a well-known fundamentalist Rabbi, is taken hostage by Dr. al-Saath, a legendary Palestinian terrorist, who demands the release of scores of high-level Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for his captive.Elihu, now directing the interagency intelligence team hunting for Apfulbaum's captors, finds himself tracking a familiar and elusive enemy. As the Israelis slowly close in on their pray, the hostage and the hostage taker—sparring through grueling all-night interrogation sessions—become caught up in an extraordinary relationship; parallels between these battle-scarred partisans evolve in to bizarre bonds and a terrifying alliance. Israel, Palestine and the international community are united behind the effort to end the hostage crisis, but has the vicious circle already been closed? Ferociously suspenseful and brilliantly topical, Vicious Circle is a thriller that, like The Company before it, exposes the heart of an entire culture of violence by probing the corrupted consciences of the men and woman ensnared within it.
    • 2/5
      Very readable but at the end you feel it was all a bit simplistic and a let-down.
    • 4/5
      Robert Littell has survived the passing of the Cold War era far better than others who flourished in that hall of mirrors, like John LeCarre. In ‘Vicious Circle’, Littell explores Arab-Israeli relations that often seem like the embrace of mutual death. On the eve of an historic peace treaty forced upon Israel and Palestinians by an American President, an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist kidnaps a Jewish rabbi and extremist. Littell’s tale focuses alternately on the Israeli efforts to rescue the rabbi and the rabbi’s relationship with his captor that seemingly develops as they engage in long theological debates that become discussions.Littell uses an oral history project recording the insights of an American presidential advisor as a mechanism to introduce some distance and objectivity. The advisor finds that keeping one’s distance is not entirely possible.An excellent read, a thriller with brains.
    • 4/5
      Probing the unending conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the author describes in detail one terrorist kidnapping (as well as the context that sets it in motion). As the Israelis and Palestinian Authority search frantically for the Jihadists and their victims, the leading Jihadist and the Rabbi he has taken engage in the Stockholm syndrome on steroids. Eventually, they acknowledge a bizarre brotherhood, that has profound implications. This incident is set against a peace treaty that has been rammed through by an American President strongly resembling Hillary Clinton. The American Special Envoy to the Middle East becomes the tale's narrator as he strives to keep the treaty signing on schedule against the backdrop of terror in Jerusalem.