The Cairo Affair

By: Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Sophie Kohl is living her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.

Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.

Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game. Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favor, and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it leads.

American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.

As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.

©2014 Third State, Inc. (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Great Narration. Reason we love audio books

This a good "spy" thriller mostly because of the narration and the subject: the Arab spring. Set in Europe and Egypt it involves the revolution in Libya. Although it is sort of "old news" its much more current that anything involving Russia and the cold war. There is also something going on in the "background" that keeps you guessing. I won't give it away.

The narration is great. You would swear that there are several narrators instead of just Edoardo Ballerini. This is one of those books that is a much better listen than read.

A little too back and forth for me

This could have been a 4 star review. I listen a lot at work and I am able to keep track with books like The Story Teller, so I gotta say that this one had my head spinning. A lot of people with the same sounding Egyptian names. Some of those people had different names for on person. To be fair - Maybe it was one person. I felt like I was hearing "Jaun duelly - John Dooley - Hans Drooly" And so on. That's the American version of what I thought I was hearing. Some quick jumps back and for through time didn't help, and the politics didn't resonate with me personally - Though I should study up more about other countries current affairs. Besides countries like Venezuela and the Ukraine of course. God be with them. It had a lot of good intrigue in there mixed in with the stuff I didn't like, and the narrator was really good.

Spy thriller in Cairo not to be missed

Excellent espionage thriller by Olen Steinhauer, who’s a viable inheritor of the lofty mantle set by John Le Carré. The story is captivating, mostly set in Cairo as the book title implies. There are three primary protagonists—John Calhoun, the underappreciated African-American CIA contractor, Sophie Kohl, the tragic but cheating widow of an honorable foreign service officer, and Omar Halawi, the noble but calculating Egyptian intelligence officer. The misguided CIA officer, Stan Bertolli, might be another. Steinhauer renders these characters well, and I was drawn to each, though Sophie’s choices were dubious. Steinhauer clearly did his research well. His description of Egypt, the Egyptian characters, the cultural nuances, are all spot-on. The backdrop of the ill-fated Arab Spring, juxtaposed against the earlier fracturing of Yugoslavia in which Sophie and her husband become entwined, provides a great pretext for the story. I’ll look for more by Steinhauer, albeit it was the exotic Middle Eastern setting that attracted me to this work. I tire of the relentless onslaught of spy thrillers taking place in Eastern Europe with the Russians or East Germans as the obvious antagonists. Superb narration by Edoardo Ballerini, one of the best in the business.

a many layered novel.

This is the best narrated novel by Olen.
it takes some time getting used to the flow of the novel with the changing pov and time but it is worth it to catch that rhythm. i just loved the layers.

Great suspense story

Well written and narrated. A good mystery which kept me in suspense to the very end.

Spook books: just not my kind of thing.

I think the only spook book I've ever read was The Spy who came in from the cold, and I read it because I had seen the movie, which I loved, and also because Frank Muller narrated it. I will listen to it again. I bought this book primarily because I love Edoardo Ballerini, who can, in my view, do virtually no wrong. However, the entire genre just does not appeal to me. Liars lying to liars, with multiple layers of lying above and below; cloak and dagger plots which are so convoluted that they are almost impossible to follow; characters who turn out to be uninteresting drones, living the expat life and being pushed all over the world so that they can't live normal domestic lives: you put this all together and it just bores me to tears. Mr. Steinhauer can write, and Mr. Ballerini is simply a delight to listen to. The book takes place mostly in Cairo, as the title indicates. There are a number of people who work in the CIA office in Cairo, and the plot centers on their involvement with a spook operation called Stumbler. Stumbler is a project whose intent is apparently to kidnap the Libyan revolution against Qaddafi by moving in at key moments and plaacing American personnel in positions of power, so that Libya post-Qaddafi will be manageable, and "friendly to American business interests." Fine. It's a fair bet that any character you might find a little bit interesting will be found in an alley with his throat slashed in just a few pages. There really is no one person who is the protagonist in the book. There are several parts which are named for individuals in the story, like Part I: Stan. Or Part II: John. As a structure for a plot this is dull. There is so much time-shifting that finally you don't care about any of these individuals. I gave up about two-thirds of the way through, which seems to be happening to me a good it lately. Maybe I am hitting the bottom of the barrel in the detective/thriller genre. There are a few writers whom I find wonderful: Tim Hallinan, Martin Cruz Smith, John Lescroarts; and there are a number of individual works by authors whom I generally don't care for, and then there are a few bright newcomers, but there sure is a lot of bad stuff out there, books that cry out for editors, or books that clearly are targeted at groups to which I do not belong. So, once again, this book is going to be exactly the thing for people who like this sort of thing. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful than that.

Excellent espionage story

What did you love best about The Cairo Affair?

The storyline is great... very authentic and flows very smoothly. The author obviously knows his stuff... he bothered to research the country (Egypt) and all the locations (or has been there) and the ambience is spot on. The CIA station in Egypt is one of the biggest in the region and this book is quite believable when you keep that fact in mind.

I would have given it five stars across the board, but being from this part of the world, we never call someone "Abdul" or "Abdel", but for the intended audience it is not an issue I guess. The story makes you realize how dirty and convoluted the clandestine services really are. The characters are very human and believable too, so overall... a great listen. Highly recommended.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I listen to audio books only when I drive. I ended up taking the long way around just so
I could keep listening.

Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time... but he carried it off perfectly. One of the best readers I have heard on this site.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes... but I pace myself because I prefer to listen when I drive.

Any additional comments?

Great audio book. Excellent author and narrator. Highly recommended book. I am sorry it ended and will watch out for both the author and narrator for future audio books.

not an action novel

In a world full of spies and intrigue you would expect some action and there was little to be found. i struggled through everything but the last 2 1/2 hours and then gave up and deleted the book. It felt like every character had to spend an hour talking about there feelings and emotions and then the plot would move ahead another step or two. There are very few books that i don't finish,but this was one.. it was a good plot line and could have made a good book without having to overdevelop every characters thought.

Not engaging...

The book is off to a great start : the reader is immediately taken into the suspense of what appears to be a very captivating story where personal passions, politics and mistery are intermingled and the main characters seem like the pieces of a grand chess game that is played in Cairo, Budapest, Washington....But little by little the readers' excitment fades away : too many characters , too many useless details and too many levels of a story too complicated . Steinhauer knows how to write : his characters are credible and you can smell the scent of Cairo when it talks about the city , but , by losing focus,he fails to maintain the right tension and the sense of purpose and loses the reader attention. By the end of the book i was no longer engaged ...and was glad it was finished.

Completely confusing

What disappointed you about The Cairo Affair?

I could not keep up with the characters.

Would you ever listen to anything by Olen Steinhauer again?

NO!!!!

What didn’t you like about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance?

N/A

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

None at all.

Any additional comments?

Don't purchase this book.