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UNPOSSESSED CITY, THE by Jon Fasman - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOKSee all titles by Jon Fasman.In this taut, atmospheric novel by the author of The New York Times bestseller The Geographer's Library,
a young American finds himself adrift in Russia amid murderous
bureaucrats, Central Asian mobsters, and a conspiracy to sell Soviet
bioweapons to the highest bidder.
Jim Vilatzer was going
nowhere-working in his parents' restaurant, sleeping in his childhood
bedroom-until he ran up gambling debts that forced him to go somewhere
far away-fast. He uses his Russian-language skills (learned from his
émigré grandparents) to cadge a job in Moscow finding and interviewing
survivors of the Gulag. At first, he only finds that they are well
hidden and leery of sharing their horrific stories, but he also
discovers that he's falling in love with their homeland. He is
intoxicated by Moscow's brooding, ironic atmosphere, its vast reservoir
of entrepreneurial energy, its otherworldly churches and majestic
subways. On any given day, petty indignities are more than offset by
random acts of kindness.
Jim's taste for gambling is satisfied
merely by living in a city that teems with risk and promise. So he
blithely accepts a big win when a chance meeting with a lovely aspiring
actress leads not only to romance but also to her grandfather, a
concentration camp survivor who does actually want to share his story.
Soon Jim is on a roll, scoring interviews with four other survivors in
as many days, learning harrowing and fascinating things about bygone
atrocities and feeling like he has finally found where he belongs.
But his apparent success has earned him the attention of Russia's
Interior Ministry and the CIA. Jim has become an unwitting cog in
a scheme to spirit Soviet scientists and their deadly secrets out of
Russia and into the hands of the highest bidder. Pursued ruthlessly by
both sides, he must flee again, this time to the lawless border
country, where an economist-cum- mobster is preparing to peddle the
world's most dangerous technologies to whichever terrorists can muster
the cash first.
Like Donna Leon's novels of Venice or John Burdett's Bangkok series, The Unpossessed City
makes of its setting an intricate, irresistible character. With taut,
ingenious plotting and incisive prose, Fasman engages our most visceral
fears and throws brilliant light on our most primal drives-to feel that
we belong, to find love, to become better than we are.
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Assurance of Quality
VJ Books provides the finest in signed first editions and collectible books. In so doing, we consistently inspect and grade each book using professional standards. Prior to leaving our warehouse, each item is prepared to ensure safe delivery.
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