The Damascus Cover

By: Howard Kaplan

Narrated by: George Guidall

LA Times best-seller. Translated into seven languages. "Kaplan is up there with the best." (Clive Cussler, author)

In a last ditch effort to revive his career, washed-out Agent Ari Ben-Sion accepts a mission he never would have 30 years ago to smuggle a group of Jewish children out of the Damascus ghetto. Or so he thinks.

In Damascus, a beautiful American photographer, Kim, seems to be falling in love with Ari, but she is asking too many questions. His communication equipment disappears. His contact never shows up. The operation is only hours away, and everything seems awry.

Desperate to succeed, Ari might risk everything. Even his life.

Soon to be a major motion picture.

©1977 Howard Kaplan (P)2018 Recorded Books

Great spy reading

Loved the performance of the narrator. Very engaging, historically relevant. Highly recommended for spy fiction readers.

A must listen!

Unusual. Powerful. Twists and turns. Very enjoyable. I couldn't pause it. Had to keep going.

Different spy novel

Not completely predictable. Tough story line. Nazis will exist until the end of time. Worth the listen.

Too real to be accepted?!

Secret agent hero books have almost infallable characters with super human logic and strength. Here is a spy with almost more human frailty than is palatable. In this way, The Damascus Cover is both refreshing and disconcerting. Ari’s bad decisions are often those any one of us readers might make. Do I want to follow the exploits of a spy whose weaknesses are so commonplace? At first, I found this immensely frustrating. I began to accept this protagonist’s humanity as real. Still somewhat frustrated to the end — I kept wanting to yell at the character — I end my listening with appreciation for a well-written book and an excellent performance by George Guidall. It’s odd but I want more, hopefully with a character who is a bit more suitable for espionage than was Ari.

Violent and depressing

(As posted in GoodReads)
The book was good, but extremely depressing! In the end, the reader realizes that the whole thing was meaningless for the most part. And of course, the expected and wish for "happy ending" was nowhere to be found!
It does go into the perfidy of the Syrians as well as the political love of torture and dismissal of respect for life. And it really is hard to tell, in the end, who – if anyone – was a "good guy" other than Ari. It was a good book, but I doubt that I will search out others in the same vein or by the same author.