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Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg: A Thriller Kindle Edition

by Mishka Ben-David (Author), Dan Gillon (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 68 ratings
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“Convincing tradecraft, coupled with a plausible look at the inner life of a spy with a license to kill, will remind readers of the best of John le Carré.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
Yogev Ben-Ari has been sent to St. Petersburg by the Mossad, ostensibly to network and set up business connections. His life is solitary, ordered, and lonely—until he meets Anna. Neither is quite what they seem to be, but while her identity may be mysterious, there is no doubt about the love they feel for each other.
 
But the impassioned affair is not part of the Mossad plan. The agency must hatch a dark scheme to drive the lovers apart. Soon what began as a quiet, solitary mission becomes a perilous exercise in survival, and Ben-Ari has no time to discover the truth about Anna’s identity before his employers act . . .
 
“The novel has a solid sense of intrigue and suspense, and its depiction of the world of international espionage feels accurate (as it should, since the author is a former Mossad agent). The characterizations are precise, too: these aren’t stick figures in a spy story but real people in a real environment. A nice blend of classic spy-novel conventions with a thoroughly contemporary setting.” —Booklist (starred review)
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  1. Print length
    519 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    The Overlook Press
  5. Publication date
    May 17, 2016
  6. File size
    3372 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Convincing tradecraft, coupled with a plausible look at the inner life of a spy with a license to kill, will remind readers of the best of John le Carré.”
- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“The novel has a solid sense of intrigue and suspense, and its depiction of the world of international espionage feels accurate (as it should, since the author is a former Mossad agent). The characterizations are precise, too: these aren’t stick figures in a spy story but real people in a real environment. A nice blend of classic spy-novel conventions with a thoroughly contemporary setting.”
- Booklist (starred review)

About the Author

Mishka Ben-David holds an MA in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in Hebrew literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ben-David served in the Mossad for twelve years, becoming a high-ranking officer, and he is now a full-time novelist living outside Jerusalem.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07P6B4CM2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Overlook Press (May 17, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 17, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3372 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 519 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 68 ratings

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Mishka Ben-David

Mishka Ben-David

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
68 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gordon Kaplan
5.0 out of 5 stars Ben-David is an excellent storyteller, writes colorfully, and creates multi-dimensional, complex, and conflicted characters.
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2017
Yogev Ben-Ari, an operative for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, has been posted to St. Petersburg, Russia. His assignment: use his cover as an international businessman to gather intelligence. When he meets a beautiful woman, and they promptly fall in love, Yogev doesn't mind, at least not too much, anyway that Anna is probably not whom she says she is; after all, neither is Yogev.When his masters back in Israel decide his relationship with Anna is too risky to permit, however, Yogev finds himself at war with his own people. The novel has a solid sense of intrigue and suspense, and its depiction of the world of international espionage feels accurate (as it should, since the author is a former Mossad agent). The characterizations are precise, too: these aren't stick figures in a spy story but real people in a real environment. A nice blend of classic spy-novel conventions with a thoroughly contemporary setting. (Synopsis edited from Booklist.)

This is a superb story. Ben-David is not only an excellent storyteller but also writes with a colorful palette as he describes particularly St. Petersburg but also Tel Aviv and other cities in which the story takes place. Yogev and Anna are multi-dimensional, complex, and conflicted characters. Fairly early on I figured out who and what Anna was, but that didn't deter me from wanting to know how the story ends. Ben-David ties it together at the end and manages to surprise us at the same time.
3 people found this helpful
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Guy
4.0 out of 5 stars A moving, introspective love story / espionage thriller. But the translation is woefully stilted
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020
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I read this novel in the original Hebrew back in the day and liked it quite a lot. It's told in the first person, autobiography-style, and empathetically relates the life story of a Mossad assassin and the harsh price his controversial career exacts on his love life.

Recruited into Israel's secretive intelligence agency as a young, patriotic man straight out of the army, the dutiful, thoughtful protagonist is reluctantly pressed into carrying out targeted hits on various terrorist enemies of the state worldwide. The first third of the novel examines how, over the years, he hides this aspect of his work from his pacifist wife, and how the lie slowly poisons their loving marriage to the point of its painful, bitter dissolution. Broken and emotionally numb, he's assigned to a dormant, undercover post in St. Petersburg, Russia to recover for a time. There he meets a vivacious, intelligent and lonely local woman and the two slowly develop a tender romance, despite the fact that he is still living a lie under an assumed identity. Determined to place his love above all else and do things differently this time, our man decides to disobey orders, desert his post and pursue happiness - even at the cost of setting himself up against his own ruthless employers.

I found the novel quite interesting and moving, at times even cathartic, as the protagonist's two great loves and losses are empathically explored. Ben-David's prose is concise and introspective, though as other reviewers have noted, some of the segments providing a detailed description of operational discussions held at Mossad HQ do read a bit like the dry protocols of real-life security apparatus meetings. As befits a romance-oriented thriller, there is the occasional sex scene, but, though a bit racy, they are nonetheless portrayed as loving, sensitive and respectful acts. The thriller aspect of the tale comprises the work of the protagonist and his fellow spies, which does involve some "action" scenes, but at its core this is an interpersonal drama. I give the novel 4 out of 5 stars, at least in the original Hebrew. Oh, and unlike other reviewers, I didn't mind at all that the dialogue is not tagged with quotation marks. If anything, I found it to actually benefit the narrative's autobiographical style.

The English translation, however, should be more harshly criticized. The more descriptive sections are generally adequate in quality, but dialogue sounds woefully stilted, stiff and belabored, often lacking the casual fluency expected in a transcription of authentic, modern-day vernacular speech. Also, quite a bit of "Hebrish" (clunky noncolloquial expressions literally translated from the Hebrew) can be observed. To provide one egregious example: at one point the protagonist's wife pointedly chides him that he should up and quit his job:
"?אולי תפרוש וזהו"
Which would best be translated succinctly as "Why don't you just quit?", or "Can't you just resign?". However, the translator chose the following tortured form: "Perhaps you'll leave the service and that will be that?". Embarrassingly over-literal and stilted, and also entirely flubbing the tone and significance of the utterance, turning a loaded recrimination into some kind of wishy-washy incomprehensible query.
Or: "I am not prepared to allow you to do that", which by all accounts should read: "I won't let you do that".
And the novel is full of such forced speech patterns and botched idioms.

I'd give the translation 1.5 stars. For a novel that, in the original, uses language so nicely and succinctly to deliver touching insights, it's a real pity that the translation butchers all that and will probably greatly detract from readers' experience. Still, I would recommend this book even in its deficient English translation.
3 people found this helpful
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Alon
4.0 out of 5 stars With a few fixes could have been a classic
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016
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He is a great story teller, couldn't put it down, and this could have been a great book, but some odd things about it made it poorly written. None of the dialogue is in quotations, making it confusing and disjointed. Also seems the translation is odd (I read it in English) diminishing some of the impact, and certainly the ending. It is also poorly edited, which also diminishes the impact in certain parts.

All these seem like easy fixes, curious why they weren’t addressed, had they been it would have been a classic.
5 people found this helpful
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NHS
4.0 out of 5 stars Two lovely venues
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2020
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(What an ordeal to read a novel that doesn't use hairstylist

(What an ordeal to read a novel that doesn't use quotation marks!)
St Petersburg and Israel are like characters in this Mossad-based spy
story.
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gillian gamsy
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2016
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A great read
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Eugene C. Cochran
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016
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Good read.
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the phantom tollbooth
4.0 out of 5 stars Neither suspenseful nor a thriller
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2018
Reads more like a biography than a suspense thriller. There are a few predictable twists at the end, but otherwise the book kind of just plods along. The main character doesn't even arrive in St. Petersburg and meet his "forbidden love" until almost halfway through the book, with the first 150+ pages being dedicated to his marriage and it's eventual disintegration while working from Israel for the Mossad.
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Dinochka
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book with interesting ending
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2017
I liked the book, but the first half was too long. Some parts of the book are prolonged way too much. Interesting unpredictable ending.
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Top reviews from other countries

A.L.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written
Reviewed in Germany on January 1, 2022
Verified Purchase
This novel is captivating, full of emotions, and provides suspense until the last page.
For anyone who enjoys spy novels this book will be a perfect fit.
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Lei Da
5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2021
Verified Purchase
I didn’t expect a love story having previously read Duel in Beirut. I know, the clue was in the title! but the backdrop of such detailed espionage interwoven with the beautifully written development of the relationship was gripping and heart warming (and breaking) in equal measure. Thanks for a splendid read .
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars That spy agencies are alive and as active today as they were during the Cold War.
Reviewed in Australia on August 10, 2018
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A beautifully written book. Very descriptive, very personal and a joy to read. The story line was very plausible and there were twists and turns which kept me eager to keep reading.
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Oberleseratte
4.0 out of 5 stars Between brillant and boring - I loved it anyway
Reviewed in Germany on April 9, 2019
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I have never before been forced to choose between boring (About 200 pages without any Content were really hard to chew) and brilliant (I loved the rest) on this Level. Intellectually it is on a very, very high Level. My suggestions: read it and leave out the pages without relevance for you. There will be enough About real espionage and Tension to make it worthwile.
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Aussie A
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in Australia on July 16, 2022
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paid for a new copy and received a used one
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