The Sleeper: A Novel

by Christopher Dickey

Kurt Kurtovic wanted nothing more than to be left in peace, to make a life with his wife and child in Westfield, Kansas. Then September 11 happened and Kurt knew they'd never be safe again unless he did what only he could do, take terror to the terrorists. He knew their world, knew how they worked, knew their weak points. He knew, because he'd been one of them.

But as Kurt wages his bloody campaign, hunting down his former Al-Qaeda comrades in Britain, Spain, and Africa, he becomes the hunted. And so do his wife and child back home. The most dangerous agents of terror, he discovers, are in the United States: those who don't want the wars to end; those who believe "we have waited thousands of years for Judgment Day, never knowing when it would come. But now we can put it on the calendar. We can fix a date." As a man-made apocalypse approaches, Kurt realizes that some of America's most ruthless enemies walk its corridors of power every day.

In the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré, this hard-driving narrative of vengeance and redemption by one of America's most prescient writers on espionage and terror is a riveting thriller about the horrors of the recent past -- and the dangers of the near future.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Christopher Dickey is a war correspondent, historian, and thriller writer, an authority on terrorism, and a memoirist. He is the Paris-based foreign editor of The Daily Beast, and is a contributor to NBC/MSNBC News. Chris also has been a frequent commentator on CNN, the BBC, and NPR. He was formerly a bureau chief for Newsweek in Paris and Cairo, and for The Washington Post in Central America and the Middle East.

Reviews

[Bookmarks Magazine]

A new thriller subgenre emerged after 9/11, which both capitalized on the terrorist attacks and tried to make sense of them. The Sleeper, by Newsweek magazine's Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor, belongs to this group. Dickey cites his own "reporting about terrorist organizations, guerrilla wars, and government conspiracies since 1980" as inspiration for the novel's action-packed scenes, which take place from Granada to Guantanamo. Most critics found Sleeper sophisticated, skillfully rendered, and disturbing

[Robert Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brisk, clear, troubling story highlighting the almost insurmountable complexity of contemporary terrorism and counter-terrorism. And the human cost. And the psychological cost to agency "assets."

[Thomas Luong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an interesting story of a man lost in this world. He turned to many different religions to find himself and found what he was searching for back in his home town. Shortly after 9-11 he is called in by the government to track down the possibilities of a second attack. Its a great story of unsung American heroes doing their part everyday and of people who a torn between two worlds and just looking for a purpose in life.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent thriller about al-Qaeda

[Lizanne Whitlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy this author, along with David Ignatius.