Northern spy : a novel /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Viking, 2021Description: 278 pages ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780735224995
- 0735224994
- 813/.6 23
- PS3602.E76367 N67 2021
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Blanchard Library Adult Fiction | Blanchard Library | Book | F BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610021864355 | |||
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Fiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610022926336 | |||
Standard Loan | Hayden Library Adult Fiction | Hayden Library | Book | BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023666063 | |||
Standard Loan | Hayden Library Adult Fiction | Hayden Library | Book | BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610022962752 | |||
Standard Loan | Kellogg Library Adult Fiction | Kellogg Library | Book | BERR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610022778117 | |||
Standard Loan | Liberty Lake Library Adult Fiction | Liberty Lake Library | Book | FIC BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31421000671462 | ||||
Standard Loan | Newport Library Adult Fiction | Newport Library | Book | BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 50610021186841 | ||||
Standard Loan | Pinehurst Library Adult Fiction | Pinehurst Library | Book | BERRY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023666006 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Reese's Book Club Pick
Instant New York Times Bestseller
A New York Times Book Review Top 10 Thriller of 2021
A Washington Post Top 10 Thriller or Mystery of 2021
"If you love a mystery, then you'll devour [ Northern Spy ] . . . I loved this thrill ride of a book."--Reese Witherspoon
"A chilling, gorgeously written tale . . . Berry keeps the tension almost unbearably high." - The New York Times Book Review
The acclaimed author of Under the Harrow and A Double Life returns with her most riveting novel to date: the story of two sisters who become entangled with the IRA
A producer at the BBC and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground in the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, but they never really went away, and lately bomb threats, security checkpoints, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the news reporter requests the public's help in locating those responsible for the robbery, security footage reveals Tessa's sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face.
The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa is convinced she must have been abducted or coerced; the sisters have always opposed the violence enacted in the name of uniting Ireland. And besides, Marian is vacationing on the north coast. Tessa just spoke to her yesterday.
When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, the bonds of her family, her notions of right and wrong, and her identity as a sister and a mother. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she wants nothing more than to protect the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son, Finn.
Riveting, atmospheric, and exquisitely written, Northern Spy is at once a heart-pounding story of the contemporary IRA and a moving portrait of sister- and motherhood, and of life in a deeply divided society.
"A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground after the Good Friday agreement, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats, arms drops, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible for this latest raid - a robbery at a gas station - Tessa's sister appears on the screen. Tessa watches in shock as Marian pulls a black mask over her face. The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa knows this is impossible. They were raised to oppose Republicanism, and the violence enacted in its name. They've attended peace vigils together. And besides, Marian is vacationing by the sea. Tessa just spoke to her yesterday. When the truth of what has happened to Marian reveals itself, Tessa will be forced to choose: between her ideals and her family, between bystanderism and action. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she fears nothing more than endangering the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son. A riveting and exquisite novel about family, terror, motherhood, betrayal, and the staggering human costs of an intractable conflict, Northern Spy cements Flynn Berry's status as one of the most sophisticated and accomplished authors of crime and suspense novels working today"--
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Belfast BBC political news producer Tessa Daly, the protagonist of this moving contemporary thriller from Edgar winner Berry (A Double Life), is struggling to juggle her job with caring for her six-month-old son, whose custody she shares with her ex-husband, when she sees a TV clip showing a gas station being robbed by a gun-wielding IRA trio. One of them is her younger sister, Marian, whom Tessa believed to be vacationing on the north coast. Detective Inspector Fenton and his team, who subsequently interrogate Tessa, seem convinced that she must also be IRA or, at the very least, privy to her sister's activities. It turns out that the local authorities don't know an awful lot about the now-fugitive Marian, whose efforts to press Tessa to assist her in her current clandestine mission puts both mother and baby at risk. The tension becomes at times almost unbearable as the plot takes increasingly sharp, sometimes improbable twists. It's a measure of the author's skill that she never loses sight of the humanity of her characters. Berry remains a writer to watch. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (Mar.)Booklist Review
Berry juxtaposes the pleasures, wonder, and frustrations of life with a baby against a journalist's life in contemporary Northern Ireland. Terrorism first encroaches on Tessa Daly's life as a single mother when she sees her sister, Marian, on TV donning a ski mask to rob a bank with IRA members. Baby care and work fade to insignificance as Tessa scrambles to determine where her sister is, whether she was kidnapped by the terrorists and forced to do take part in the robbery, and how to get her home. That's just the start of this twisting thriller, though, as Tessa becomes far more involved with the terrorists' cause than she ever planned, risking her life to save all she loves. Edgar-winning Berry (Under the Harrow, 2016) unobtrusively uses Tessa's agonizing journey to portray life in the IRA and the nonchalance of the British forces toward Northern Ireland's locals, in the process dropping readers headfirst into the emotions of living in conflict. Berry's portrayal of Irish life is uncannily accurate; give this to all who love an emotional thriller, but also to Irish and Irish American patrons seeking a no-shamrocks look at Ireland in the not-so-distant past.Kirkus Book Review
Berry delivers a taut and compassionate thriller as young mother Tessa is drawn into working as a double agent in the Irish Republican Army to protect her sister. It's been years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, but tensions in Northern Ireland remain at a constant simmer. Tessa moves through the simple motions of her life: taking care of her infant son, working at the BBC News Belfast bureau, spending time with her mother and sister. The physical isolation and beauty of her home village hint at the possibility of a world in which one doesn't always have to be alert for terrorists; Tessa is old enough, however, to remember the Troubles, and she fears that the IRA will never truly surrender. Still, it comes as a shock at work one day when she sees a video of her sister participating in an IRA robbery. But even more shocking is the revelation that comes from Marian herself once she is able to reach out to Tessa: She's been a member of the IRA for seven years, drawn in by their talk about economic inequality, and has recently begun feeding information to MI5 in order to create space for peace talks. After a bomb she created for the IRA failed to blow up, though, she's under constant surveillance and can no longer meet with her British handler. And so Tessa joins her sister as a double agent: She's accepted by Marian's crew and asked to do increasingly dangerous tasks for the IRA, which she then reports to her handler. Days of espionage are balanced by quiet moments with her son as Tessa comes to realize that putting herself in danger is justified, even necessary, if she wants him to grow up in a safer Ireland. Berry's use of short chapters, often divided into several smaller episodes, is particularly effective in reflecting Tessa's fragmented sense of loyalty and safety. This is not a book of action, though there is plenty, but instead a greater reflection on personal choice and consequence. A poignant and lyrical novel that asks what is worth sacrificing for peace--and provides some answers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Flynn Berry is the New York Times bestselling author of three novels: Northern Spy, a Reese's Book Club pick; A Double Life, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice; and Under the Harrow, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Atlantic . The recipient of a Yaddo fellowship, she is a graduate of Brown University and the Michener Center for Writers.There are no comments on this title.