Istanbul Passage

A Novel

By: Joseph Kanon

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed, best-selling author of Stardust, The Good German, and Los Alamos - a gripping tale of an American undercover agent in 1945 Istanbul who descends into the murky cat-and-mouse world of compromise and betrayal that will come to define the entire postwar era.

A neutral capital straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul has spent the war as a magnet for refugees and spies. Even American businessman Leon Bauer has been drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs and courier runs for the Allied war effort. Now, as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of postwar life, he is given one more assignment, a routine job that goes fatally wrong, plunging him into a tangle of intrigue and moral confusion.

Played out against the bazaars and mosques and faded mansions of this knowing, ancient Ottoman city, Leon's attempt to save one life leads to a desperate manhunt and a maze of shifting loyalties that threatens his own. How do you do the right thing when there are only bad choices to make? Istanbul Passage is the story of a man swept up in the aftermath of war, an unexpected love affair, and a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it.

Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Joseph Kanon's latest novel flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller about the dawn of the Cold War, once again proving why Kanon has been hailed as the "heir apparent to Graham Greene" (The Boston Globe).

©2012 Simon & Schuster; 2012 Joseph Kanon

Critic reviews

" Istanbul Passage bristles with authenticity. Joseph Kanon has a unique and admirable talent: He brilliantly marries suspense and historical fact, wrapping them around a core of pure human drama, while making it seem effortless. This isn't just talent; it's magic." (Olen Steinhauer, New York Times best-selling author of The Tourist)

"Istanbul Passage is a first-rate espionage novel, filled with complexity and thrills, but its greatest success may be in this much more universal literary exploration: how an ordinary man is transformed by extraordinary circumstances." ( Publishers Weekly)

"With dialogue that can go off like gunfire and a streak of nostalgia that feels timeless, this book takes its place among espionage novels as an instant classic." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Loved the moodiness of Mays' interpretation.

The story shaped up to being a good work for two thirds of the book.
The last quarter to third did not 'read' like the same author.

While we humans may not be exactly rational and can make some very odd decisions,it was more than a man very carefully fleshed out, doing something odd. The style changed.

Maybe editorial interference, "We need more Action." sort of thing or Kanon just wanting a certain kind of ending to this novel. For me it failed.

If it was a hard copy I doubt I would keep in my shelves.

The general subject and location was interesting for me. I did like Mays reading of the story. Other than that this was a disappointing listen.

As there is some excellent fiction available through Audible. I would suggest your credit or dollars could be better used.

What choice do you make when all options are bad?

Leon Bauer is, or appears to be, just an agent for American tobacco interests in Turkey. Rejected for military service, he's spent several years in Istanbul, learning the language and customs and steeping himself in the beautiful city that sits between east and west. With his German refugee wife, Anna, he has made Istanbul his home. Even after World War II ends, he has no desire to return to the United States.

Leon's other life is on the fringes of the intelligence community. He does occasional side jobs, mostly package deliveries, for a friend at the U.S. consulate. But when he gets an assignment to pick up a human package from a fishing boat one night, the job goes very wrong. Now, Leon has left the fringes of the murky world of espionage and is left stranded in its dangerous center, not knowing who he can trust, and improvising to complete his task on his own.

It turns out that Leon has a talent for acting as a lone agent, keeping his own counsel and observing everyone in his life to try to figure out what went wrong at the pickup, who might have been involved and who they might represent, all while he's working hard to figure out how to get Alexei, his human package, out of Turkey. Now he looks at everyone differently. Might there be a traitor at the consulate? Is an old friend a Russian agent? What about the hostess whose parties bring together people from all countries and interests; the guy who forges documents; the police investigator; Altan, the scrupulously-polite-but-threatening commander from Turkey's secret police; even those closest to Leon?

Leon may be new to the ruthless world of the secret agent, but is soon drawn into its moral ambiguities and compromises; using friends, even when it places them in danger, even as he learns how unworthy Alexei is of his help.

Joseph Kanon excels at drawing a picture of the immediate postwar period. Europe's cities are in ruins, loyalties in flux, power shifting and nobody knowing what the new world will look like. He's done it before in his novels, especially in The Good German and The Alibi, probably the novels most similar to Istanbul Passage. Though the mood may be the same, this is a different location, and one that adds a lot to the story. Istanbul has always been a divided city; east and west, Muslim, Christian, Jewish. In the 20th century no longer a world power, it sat uneasily between Germany and Russia during the war, and now it must walk a tightrope between the new powers, Russia and the United States. Istanbul is the perfect setting for this story and Kanon brings it alive, from the street bazaars to the bathhouses, the mosques, the back streets, the cafés where people sip tea from tulip glasses, the yalis––villas––on the waterfront, and the mysteriously beautiful and dangerous Bosphorus.

The title, Istanbul Passage, is well chosen. It can refer to to Leon's passage from almost an errand boy to a rogue agent, from a black-and-white moralist to somebody who reluctantly, and to his chagrin, learns from Alexei and Altan what it takes to survive when you're on your own. Or the title may refer to Istanbul's history as a place where people are bought, sold and smuggled. Throughout the war and afterward, the city served as a passage for refugees, especially Jewish refugees, to escape to a new life. And that Jewish refugee theme forms a part of this story as well.

This is not a shoot-em-up, action-packed thriller, but one that puts you into its time and place and in the mind of a man trying to figure out where his loyalties lie within it, and what choice to make when all the alternatives are bad.

Jefferson Mays's narration was fine, with one exception. He didn't much differentiate between male characters' voices, which was a problem with some dialog passages. Kanon tends to write some fairly lengthy passages of back-and-forth dialog. Without Mays using distinct voices for the characters, it was sometimes hard to figure out who was saying what.

Terrific story!

I loved this book - it was a bit slow at the start, but it picked up and i found myself listening to it even when I wasn't in the car (my usually listening spot). The reader is fabulous, and I'm only sorry I don't have the hard copy so I can check out all the places in it when we go to Istanbul.

I'm a sucker for anything about Istanbul . . .

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The prose was a bit turgid . . . . but it was a pretty good thriller.

What did you like best about this story?

I like anything about Istanbul, and the protagonist was put in an interesting and difficult situation.

How could the performance have been better?

The reader adopted some very strange pronunciations for for the names: Leon was "Lay-OWN" and Alexei was "Alex-AY". It bugged me constantly. I didn't mind that he didn't try to fake women's voices. Overall the narration was fine and didn't particularly add or detract except for the weird names.

Do you think Istanbul Passage needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, it was enough.

Excellent Narrator

Jefferson Mays' reading was outstanding. I will look for other narrations of his. I had read other books by Kanon. Istanbul Passage was consistent with his other intelligent thrillers.

Superb

As a lover of both spy novels and Istanbul this book was a pure gem. Couldn't put it down.

Mono tone

Any additional comments?

My disappointment was the narration - all the same tone. It made it very difficult to follow the storyline.

A very poor production in my opinion.

Not up to Kanon's standards

Would you try another book from Joseph Kanon and/or Jefferson Mays?

I've read other very good books by Kanon and had high expectations concerning Istanbul Passage. But it turned out to be a very disappointing experience. The plot is quite interesting, but the novel never really gets off the ground. I believe Kanon was aiming for a novel about a reflexive, postmodern, spy in post-war Istanbul. But it turned out to be too reflexive for my taste, with very slow and artificial dialogue and halting action.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Probably a book by William Lashner or Joseph Finder.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jefferson Mays?

I think Scott Brick would have done a great job.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The problem that the plot hinges on is quite interesting: how to get an ex-Romanian fascist with a lot of knowledge on Russian intelligence out of Istanbul and into the hands of the CIA.

Narrator destroys the experience

I love anything connected to Turkey but the narrator’s inability to pronounce words correctly is so distracting. I have tried several times to get past this but have had to give up. Sad for an author who has worked hard to create a specific time and environment.

Horrible waste of time and money.

What would have made Istanbul Passage better?

A better story, any reader other than the one they have.

Would you ever listen to anything by Joseph Kanon again?

NO WAY..Unless I want to hear bad purple prose.

What didn’t you like about Jefferson Mays’s performance?

Sounded like a snooty waiter. No discernible voice inflection. Rushed reading. No talent.
Could only make it half way through the first chapter.
Jefferson May's was the worst reader I've ever had the displeasure of listening to.

How can you make a bad spy story worse? Have May's read it.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Istanbul Passage?

first chapter

Any additional comments?

If this happens again and I can't get my money back; I'll cancel auduble