THE AMATEUR SPY.
Dan Fesperman. Knopf. 367 pages. $24.95.
In Dan Fesperman's new thriller, two married couples, strangers to one another, are caught up in the intrigue and violence of the war on terror.
Freeman and Mila Lockhart are globe-hopping relief workers retired to a Greek isle. Their dream of a new life is shattered when men invade their bedroom and use threats to force Freeman to undertake a mission.
The intruders know secrets about Freeman's past, so he agrees to do what they demand: go to Jordan and spy on an old friend from relief-agency days, a Palestinian named Omar al-Baroody. Omar operates a health clinic in a refugee camp and raises money for a hospital, but the mysterious intruders believe he is involved in terrorism.
The other couple, Abbas and Aliyah Rahim, are prosperous Arab Americans who live in Washington, where he is a respected surgeon. Their lives have fallen apart since Sept. 11. Aliyah has been subjected to strip-searches at Washington airports. Abbas was jailed for several days because federal authorities were suspicious of Palestinian charities he'd supported. Then their daughter, vacationing in London, was killed in an accident in part because U.S. Embassy officials, suspicious of her name, withheld her passport. Aliyah tries to ease her grief with counseling but grows aware of how strangely her husband is behaving.
Fesperman paints a vivid, in-depth picture of Jordan, from Amman's rich neighborhoods, filled with luxury cars, scheming businessmen and spoiled teenagers, to the teeming and dangerous refugee camps. Fesperman shows persuasively the streets and the shops, the political factions and hatreds, the poverty and despair and sudden violence. A rich Palestinian says, ``For many, Osama bin Laden is Robin Hood. I would go so far as to say there is a small Osama in the heart of every Arab citizen, even at this table. And because of what is happening in Iraq and in Palestine, that small Osama is growing.''
Aliyah also ventures to Amman, hoping to thwart whatever revenge her husband is planning, but she's out of her depth.
As journalism, The Amateur Spy is exceptional. It is a tribute to the aid workers the author has known in wars and refugee camps all over the world. Fesperman tosses in unexpected details such as the Christian evangelists who moved to Israel, where their only job ``was to watch the skies above the Old City for signs of the Second Coming.''
Some of its plot elements are improbable, but Fesperman writes so well that it's easy to follow where he leads. Besides, who is to say what's improbable in an age of random terror? This key sentence describes the anguished Aliyah as she contemplates her husband's obsession: ''The last bit of sanity in her world had just slipped from her grasp, and now was lost in the chaos of the streets.'' Fesperman is telling us that the so-called war on terror is having unintended consequences, all over the world, and no one can say where the madness will strike next or who its victims will be.
Patrick Anderson reviewed this book for The Washington Post.
