Tightrope, Simon Mawer
Tightrope, Simon Mawer
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Tightrope

Author: Simon Mawer

Narrator: Kate Reading

Unabridged: 14 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/03/2015

Synopsis

This captivating historical thriller brings back Marian Sutro, ex–special operations agent, and traces her romantic and political exploits in post–World War II London, where the Cold War is about to reshape old loyalties.As Allied forces close in on Berlin in spring 1945, a solitary figure emerges from the wreckage that is Germany. It is Marian Sutro, whose existence was last known to her British controllers in autumn 1943 in Paris. One of a handful of surviving agents of the Special Operations Executive, she has withstood arrest, interrogation, incarceration, and the horrors of Ravensbrück concentration camp, but at what cost?Returned to an England she barely knows and a postwar world she doesn’t understand, Marian searches for something on which to ground the rest of her life. Family and friends surround her, but she is haunted by her experiences and by the guilt of knowing that her contribution to the war effort helped lead to the monstrosities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the mysterious Major Fawley, the man who hijacked her wartime mission to Paris, emerges from the shadows to draw her into the ambiguities and uncertainties of the Cold War, she sees a way to make amends for the past and at the same time to find the identity that has never been hers.A novel of divided loyalties and mixed motives, Tightrope is the complex and enigmatic story of a woman whose search for personal identity and fulfillment leads her to shocking choices.

About Simon Mawer

Simon Mawer is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Glass Room, which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. His other novels include The Fall, which won the Boardman Tasker Prize; The Gospel of Judas; and Mendel’s Dwarf, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. English by birth, he has made Italy his home for more than thirty years.

About Kate Reading

Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty–year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie

I closed the back cover of Tightrope, set the book on the table beside me, and switched on the radio. NPR was just beginning a segment on Russia's quiet but steady build up of a missile defense system, and its not so quiet military intervention in Syria, its aggression in Crimea. An interview with G......more

Quotes

“Brings a fine sense of story, an intriguing plot, and a lovely way with a sentence…Tightrope is full of satisfying twists, and we can’t help cheering for its tough, resourceful heroine.” New York Times Book Review

“Part fascinating psychological exploration of the symptoms of war-withdrawal, part conventional Cold War thriller…Intriguing, often lyrical.” Times (London)

“Simon Mawer is a true master of literary espionage…Tightrope is gripping stuff, with a sinuous plot and some haunting bedroom scenes.” Mail on Sunday (London)

“Sutro is a singular creation—a fascinating and compelling character and the account of how she becomes caught up in Cold War espionage is enthralling.” Sunday Mirror (London)

“Outstanding…A spy novel, yes, but one with the psychological richness and complexity of literary fiction.” Booklist (starred review)

“Like le Carré, Mawer spins out Marian’s story in an immaculately methodical and suspenseful manner. And in Marian he has created a complex, contradictory heroine.” Publishers Weekly

“The fast-paced, compelling narrative structure could almost be called ‘first-person-omniscient.’ Excellent for historical thriller readers and those interested in the dawn of the nuclear era.” Library Journal

“Mawer’s pacing is meticulous, detailed rather than slow, never frustrating or boring but rather creating an ominous atmosphere…Very much in the vein of John le Carré.” Kirkus Reviews

“Kate Reading narrates the novel in a clear, uninflected voice. Her pronunciation and pacing are perfect. She evokes the world-weary, disillusioned mindset of many during those postwar years following the use of the atomic bomb…Listen to the production to hear Mawer’s splendid descriptive passages, well-crafted language, and compelling dialogue—all delivered by an accomplished narrator.” AudioFile

Awards

  • Amazon Best Book of the Month
  • Walter Scott Prize
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