LOCAL>> Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group: American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet virtually on Zoom Thursday, July 8 at 7pm to discuss our July selection, American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson.

We meet each month via Zoom.  Email registration is required: bethmbg@gmail.com

Wilkinson’s unflinching, incendiary debut combines the espionage novels of John le Carrė with the racial complexity of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Marie Mitchell, the daughter of a Harlem-born cop and a Martinican mother, is an operative with the FBI in the mid-’80s peak of the Cold War. Marie is languishing in the bureaucratic doldrums of the agency, a black woman stultified by institutional prejudice relegated to running snitches associated with Pan-African movements with Communist links.

All this changes when she is tapped by the CIA to insinuate herself with Thomas Sankara, the charismatic new leader of Burkina Faso, in a concerted effort to destabilize his fledgling government and sway them toward U.S. interests.

Written as a confession addressed to her twin sons following an assassination attempt on her life, the novel is a thrilling, razor-sharp examination of race, nationalism, and U.S. foreign policy that is certain to make Wilkinson’s name as one of the most engaging and perceptive young writers working today.

Marie is a brilliant narrator who is forthright, direct, and impervious to deception-traits that endow the story with an honesty that is as refreshing as it is revelatory. This urgent and adventurous novel will delight fans of literary fiction and spy novels alike. (Publisher’s Weekly)

We hope you’ll join us online. We’ve had some great discussions.