A Map of Betrayal A Novel [Paperback]

AChristian Science MonitorBest Book of the Year

Lilian Shang, a history professor in Maryland, knew that her father, Gary, had been the most important Chinese spy ever caught in the United States. But when she discovers his diary after the death of her parents, its pages reveal the full pain and longing that his double life entailed—and point to a hidden second family that he’d left behind in China.
        As Lilian follows her father’s trail back into the Chinese provinces, she begins to grasp the extent of her father’s dilemma—torn between loyalty to his motherland and the love he came to feel for his adopted country. As she starts to understand that Gary, too, had been betrayed, she finds that it is up to her to prevent his tragedy from endangering yet another generation of the Shangs. A stunning portrait of a multinational family, an unflinching inquiry into the meaning of patriotism,A Map of Betrayalis a spy novel that only Ha Jin could write.

“Powerful. . . . A heartbreaking portrait of a spy torn between two countries.”  —The Christian Science Monitor

“A startling thriller. . . . A moving family saga. . . . A subtle page-turner. . . . Expertly chronicles the fraught relationship between the U.S. and modern China with plainspoken clarity.” —Entertainment Weekly 

“Deftly explores the parallels between an immigrant’s experience and an informant’s—the ambivalence, the delusion, the sense of warring loyalties.” —The New Yorker

“Ha Jin’s writing has a serene simplicity. . . . It is comforting as a reader to be in the hands of such a masterful storyteller.” —The Seattle Times

“A poignant novel that portrays the emotional drama of an immigrant torn apart by conflicting loyalties and ‘bone-deepl²