American Spy: A Novel [Paperback]

“American Spy updates the espionage thriller with blazing originality.”—Entertainment Weekly
“There has never been anything like it.”—Marlon James, GQ
“So much fun . . . Like the best of John le Carré, it’s extremely tough to put down.”—NPR

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

ONE OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, BuzzFeed, Vulture, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The New York Public Library

What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love?

It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not lCq