Title: A Geography of Secrets
Author: Frederick Reuss
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1609530006
Genre: Literary Fiction, Spy Thriller
From the Publisher:
Two men: One discovers the cost of keeping secrets, of building a career within a government agency where secrets are the operational basis. Noel Leonard works for the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, mapping coordinates for military actions halfway around the world. One morning he learns that an error in his office is responsible for the bombing of a school in Pakistan. And he knows suddenly that he is as alone as he is wrong. From his windowless office in DC to an intelligence conference in Switzerland, and back to his daughter’s college in Virginia, Noel claws his way toward a more personally honest life in which he can tell his family everything every day.
Another man learns that family secrets have kept him from who he is and from the ineluctable ways he is attached to a world he has always disdained. This unnamed narrator, a cartographer, is the son of a career diplomat whose activities in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and then in Europe during the Cold War may not have been what they were said to be. He, too, travels to Switzerland, but his quest is not to release himself from secrecy—it is to learn how deep the secrets in his own life go.
With a voice like John le Carré’s and the international sensibility of Graham Greene, Frederick Reuss examines the unavoidably covert nature of lives that make their circles through Washington, DC. A Geography of Secrets is a novel of the time from an acclaimed author who knows the lay of the land.
My Review:
A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss is an exquisitely multi-layered work of literary fiction. Reuss captures the essence of human emotions and behaviors in his novel, which on the surface presents as a spy novel and an excellent one at that. Reuss goes so far as to provide the reader with coordinates that when entered into Google Earth allows the reader to geographically follow the story. With a firm look at Washington, D.C., and all that is known and unknown, the reader is shown the world through a cartographer’s eyes and the eyes of a Department of Defense analyst “bean counter”. A Geography of Secrets is a powerful, philosophical novel begging the reader to question what is seen and unseen in the world, to look at how people interact and just how many roles each person plays in any given day. At the heart of the matter is a sense of longing to belong, to find one’s center, one’s moral compass and the complex dynamics of family. Reuss reminds the reader of the fragility of life in the seemingly never-ending quest for identity. I highly recommend A Geography of Secrets to all readers and truly believe this would make a brilliant discussion group book.
Frederick Reuss is the acclaimed author of Horace Afoot, Henry of Atlantic City, and The Wasties. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and two daughters. – Author photo by Vaughan Melzer.
I received a complimentary copy of A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss from Unbridled Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
I think this would be one of those I tell a friend to read instead, she likes them like this
This sounds like a book both my husband and I would enjoy. I know he would get into entering those coordinates in Google Earth.
I cannot praise this book enough! I do not know why, but a mediocre book I have no difficulties writing a review of yet the books that take my breath away I struggle with.