Our American Friend
By (Author) Anna Pitoniak
Bedford Square Publishers
No Exit Press
7th June 2023
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Political / legal thriller
Espionage and spy thriller
Crime and mystery: women sleuths
813.6
Paperback
320
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
A mysterious First Lady. The intrepid journalist writing her biography. And the secret that could destroy them both.
Tired of covering the grating dysfunction of Washington and the increasingly outrageous antics of President Henry Caine, White House correspondent Sofie Morse quits her job and plans to leave politics behind.
But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, inviting her to come in for a private meeting with Lara, Sofie's curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara - only that she was born in Soviet Russia, raised in Paris, and worked as a model before moving to America and marrying the notoriously brash future president.
When Lara asks Sofie to write her official biography, and to finally fill in the gaps of her history, Sofie's curiosity gets the better of her. She begins to spend more and more time in the White House, slowly developing a bond with Lara.
As Lara's story unfolds, Sofie can't help but wonder why Lara is rehashing such sensitive information. Why tell Sofie And why now Suddenly Sofie is in the middle of a game of cat and mouse that could have explosive ramifications.
'Our American Friend does what good fiction does best - it reaches across time to speak to the present moment' - Lara Prescott
'Spectacular - a global thriller with pace, tension and ever-higher stakes, born of an intimate and unlikely friendship between two very different women...the story succeeds on every level' - Lee Child
'A journalist gets sucked into the orbit of an enigmatic first lady-and her life will never be the same.... This lively political thriller mulls love, loyalty, and the rewards of playing the long game' - Kirkus
Pitoniak braids timelines to create a portrait of a woman torn between two countries, two belief systems, two selves....Elegant and well-paced.... Like Emily in Paris meets Scandal - fantastic fun -- Justine Harman * The New York Times *
Viewers who followed the TV series The Americans will recognize and enjoy its thrilling hallmarks in this exciting novel about the erstwhile first couple -- Barbara Conaty * Library Journal *
A journalist gets sucked into the orbit of an enigmatic first lady-and her life will never be the same.... This lively political thriller mulls love, loyalty, and the rewards of playing the long game * Kirkus *
Spectacular - a global thriller with pace, tension and ever-higher stakes, born of an intimate and unlikely friendship between two very different women ... the story succeeds on every level -- Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Our American Friend does what good fiction does best-it reaches across time to speak to the present moment -- Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept
Anna Pitoniak is the author of The Futures, Necessary People, and Our American Friend. She graduated from Yale, where she majored in English and was an editor at the Yale Daily News. She worked for many years in book publishing, most recently as a Senior Editor at Random House. Anna grew up in Whistler, British Columbia, and now lives in New York City.