Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Hardcover The Turn-Around Book

ISBN: 0385170718

ISBN13: 9780385170710

The Turn-Around

Select Format

Select Condition ThriftBooks Help Icon

Recommended

Format: Hardcover

Condition: Good*

*Best Available: (ex-library, missing dust jacket)

$9.69
Almost Gone, Only 1 Left!

Book Overview

First US Edition. Fraying to top and bottom of DJ spine. Dust soiling on rear panel of DJ. This description may be from another edition of this product.

Customer Reviews

1 rating

A Twisted Turn-Around

This book was recommended to me by a friend who knew Vladimir Volkoff when he was living in the USA. An additional selling point was knowing that the book had won the 1980 French prize for literature. That said -- I'm not sure I would recommend this book to someone unfamiliar with either Russian or Russian-Orthodox culture. The translation is stiff, and doesn't help the "flow" of the book at all. So why four stars? Because once you get over the awkward translation, the plot is fascinating. Told in the first person by a member of the French intelligence community -- a thoroughly French son of Russian emigres parents -- it details an intelligence operation designed to entrap a highly-placed KGB spy into turning counter-intelligence for the French. To do this, French intelligence enlists the help of a struggling actress, also a Frenchwoman of Russian descent. Her instructions are to get the KGB operative to fall in love with her, then compromise him in such a way that he cannot refuse to work for the French. The plot twists in a way completely unforeseen by either the narrator or the reader, and leaves the reader pondering questions that don't come up in one's head through the ordinary Cold-War genre. To me, that alone makes slogging through the translation a worthwhile endeavor.
Copyright © 2024 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks® and the ThriftBooks® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured