City of Secrets, Stewart ONan
City of Secrets, Stewart ONan
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City of Secrets

Author: Stewart O’Nan

Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini

Unabridged: 5 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2016

Synopsis

From master storyteller Stewart O’Nan comes a timely moral thriller about the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War.In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees set out for Palestine by the tens of thousands. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them; taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel.City of Secrets follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he’s ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided—like his new identity—by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance. Alone, haunted by memories, he tries to become again the man he was before the war—honest, strong, capable of moral choices. He falls in love with Eva, a fellow survivor and member of his cell; reclaims his faith; and commits himself to the revolution, accepting secret missions which grow more and more dangerous even as he begins to suspect he’s being used by their cell’s dashing leader, Asher. By the time Brand understands the truth, it’s too late, and the tragedy that ensues changes history. A noirish, deeply felt novel of intrigue and identity written in O’Nan’s trademark lucent style, City of Secrets asks how both despair and faith can lead us astray, and what happens when, with the noblest intentions, we join movements beyond our control.

About Stewart O’Nan

Stewart O’Nan is the author of more than a dozen novels, including West of Sunset; The Odds; Emily, Alone; and Snow Angels, as well as several works of nonfiction, including, with Stephen King, the New York Times bestselling Faithful. His novel Last Night at the Lobster was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He was born and raised and lives with his family in Pittsburgh.

About Edoardo Ballerini

Edoardo Ballerini is a two-time winner of the Audio Publisher Association’s Best Male Narrator Award, a two-time winner of Society of Voice Arts Awards, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019.

Reviews

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Quotes

“Finely wrought and morally complex, O’Nan’s considerable story-telling powers are masterfully deployed here.” Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

“Will keep you up all night reading—what a beautifully crafted novel.” Alan Furst, New York Times bestselling author

“O’Nan takes his mastery of language and depth of character in a fresh direction: a richly nuanced suspense novel.” Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author

“O’Nan is dealing with big history here and handling it deftly, but he never loses his center.” Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author

“A little jewel, ­wonderfully sparse, moody and uneasy, reminiscent of the delicious, frayed-­collar noir of le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold…You can smell the squally desert wind that bends the cypress trees on the Jerusalem hills but never brings the rain. City of Secrets makes for great summer reading.” New York Times Book Review

“[An] atmospheric thriller…may be one of O’Nan’s best. Its strength lies in his ability, as always, to take us inside the minds and souls of characters, real or imagined…O’Nan, writing of the past as he evokes the present, reminds us terrorism is as old as it is new.” Chicago Tribune

“A fine piece of storytelling…in the exotic historic mode of Graham Greene, with the drier and grittier tone of Raymond Chandler…The moral struggle in City of Secrets is timeless and international.” Boston Globe

“Takes a clear-eyed and unsentimental look at an astonishing slice of history—one that is strikingly echoed by the heartbreaking events still unfolding in the Middle East.” Seattle Times

”A search for love and justice after the Holocaust…[and] quest for something worth believing in…Worth applauding, too, is Mr. O Nan’s ability to realize a complex female character in Eva.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“A fast-moving story that brings fresh perspective to a moment of historical significance.” St. Louis Post Dispatch

Awards

  • USA Today Pick
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