All the Old Knives
Olen Steinhauer, 2015
Macmillan : Picador
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250045430
Summary
Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA's Vienna station gathered intel during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside.
So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
Two of the CIA's case officers in Vienna, Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison, were lovers at the time, and on the night of the hostage crisis Celia decided she'd had enough. She left the agency, married and had children, and now lives in idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea. Henry is still a case officer in Vienna, and has traveled to California to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all.
But neither of them can forget that long-ago question: Had their agent been compromised? If so, how? Each also wonders what role tonight's dinner companion might have played in the way the tragedy unfolded six years ago.
All the Old Knives is New York Times bestseller Olen Steinhauer's most intimate, most cerebral, and most shocking novel to date. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 21, 1970
• Where—Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• Education—University of Pennsylvania, Lock Haven; University of Texas, Austin;
M.F.A. Emerson College
• Awards—Dashiell Hammett Award
• Currently—lives in New York City and Budapest, Hungary
Olen Steinhauer is an American writer of spy fiction novels, including The Tourist, the Milo Weaver Trilogy, and the Yalta Boulevard Sequence.
Early life
Steinhauer was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Virginia. He attended the University of Pennsylvania at Lock Haven, and the University of Texas at Austin. He received an MFA in creative writing at Emerson College in Boston.
Career
After graduation, Steinhauer received a year-long Fulbright grant to write a novel in Romania about the Romanian Revolution. It was called Tzara's Monocle, and when he moved to New York City afterward, he used that manuscript to secure a literary agent. However, it was with another book, the historical mystery set in Eastern Europe, The Bridge of Sighs, that Steinhauer first found publication.
His 2009 CIA novel, The Tourist, received positive reviews and is being developed for film by Sony Pictures.
During the winter of 2009-10, Steinhauer was the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.
The Yalta Boulevard Sequence
A five-book series of thrillers chronicling the evolution of a fictional Eastern European country situated in the historical location of Ruthenia (now part of the Ukraine) during the Cold War, with one book for each decade. Each book also focuses on a different main character.
2003 - The Bridge of Sighs (Emil Brod, 1948; nominated for five awards)
2004 - The Confession (Ferenc Kolyeszar, 1956)
2005 - 36 Yalta Boulevard (Brano Sev, 1966–1967)
2006 - Liberation Movements (Brano Sev, et al., 1968 & 1975; nominated for the Edgar Award)
2007 - Victory Square (2007) (Emil Brod, 1989, the end of communism)
The Milo Weaver Trilogy
Spy tales focused on international deception in the post 9/11 world.
2009 - The Tourist
2010 - The Nearest Exit
2012 - An American Spy
Standalone novels
2014 - The Cairo Affair
2015 - All the Old Knives
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/18/2015.)
Book Reviews
Olen Steinhauer's unusually short and wily spy novel…[is a] sneaky little gem…Mr. Steinhauer finds ways to work many different perspectives—even those of the wait staff, very briefly—into the seemingly simple story of one little amorous evening for old times' sake…Mr. Steinhauer sustains the difficult balancing act of melding a heart-racing espionage plot with credible dinner table conversation. He never violates the book's basic premise, not even when his characters begin to have the darkest suspicions about each other.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
[A] sneaky little gem.... Sustains the difficult balancing act of melding a heart-racing espionage plot with credible dinner table conversation.... Mr. Steinhauer specializes in tough showdowns. And the more innocently they begin, the more devastatingly they end.
New York Times Book Review
A splendid tour de force.... Without neglecting the turmoil of the geopolitical landscape, the novel focuses more intensely on the equally treacherous landscapes of the human heart.
Washington Post
It's not news that Olen Steinhauer is among the best contemporary espionage writers, and All the Old Knives confirms it. If you're a fan of intelligent spy novels that don't need much bang-bang, details about ordnance, or people who save the world single-handedly, this one's for you.
Seattle Times
Most of All the Old Knives revolves around Pelham and Favreau's dinner, and the fact that the book moves so swiftly and alluringly is a testament to Steinhauer's skills as an entertainer. He stretches considerable tension across an entire book, rather than a handful of swift scenes, and it's gratifying to watch him do something so daringly retro and contrary to what we've come to expect in a thriller.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Starred review.) A quiet dinner for two...unfolds into something much more dramatic.... There’s great narrative energy in the thrust and counterthrust of the dinner conversation.... Steinhauer is a very fine writer and an excellent observer of human nature, shrewd about the pleasures and perils of spying.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) This genre-bending spy novel takes Hitchcockian suspense to new heights. Over the course of a meal with flashbacks, the eternal questions of trust, loyalty, and authentic love are deftly dissected. Readers...will be thrilled to follow Henry and Celia's tortured pas de deux. —Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [M]asterfully plotted and suspenseful.... Steinhauer expertly shifts perspectives between the two spies in both their present and past lives.... It's an understatement to say that nothing is as it seems, but even readers well-versed in espionage fiction will be pleasantly surprised by Steinhauer's plot twists and double backs.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What did you think about the title, All the Old Knives, inspired by this famous Phaedrus quote: “All the old knives that have rusted in my back, I drive into yours”?
2. Famous novels such as Catcher in the Rye and Gone Girl have the theme of the lying narrator. How did the main characters’ narrations affect your understanding of what was reality and what was fiction?
3. Both Henry and Celia seem to make a good claim for themselves. Did you feel more sympathetic towards one over the other? If so, why?
4. Perspective plays an interesting role in the novel. Why did Henry and Celia feel so differently about their relationship?
5. What do you think the next 2 pages would reveal if added on to the ending of the book?
6. The entirety of the novel takes place over the course of one meal. What do you think was gained by this restriction? Do you think anything was lost?