Because recent news from the Middle East has been mostly of the shit-your-pants variety, it’s comforting to see the conflicts of the area condensed into genre fiction, where the hero gets the girl, the villain gets his just deserts and no one gets killed — at least no one the writer has made likable or usable in a sequel. Daniel Silva, a former Middle East correspondent who has made the best-seller list with his espionage thrillers about the region, gives us the opportunity to absorb its politics in snappy, brisk prose instead of the world-wearying, disquieting pages of The New York Times. In his latest, The Messenger, Israeli agent Gabriel Allon teams up with 9/11 widow and museum curator Sarah Bancroft to stop a Saudi billionaire’s conspiracy to kill the pope. Ask him why mystery writers seem to think museum curators have such intriguing lives when he reads today at 6:30 p.m.
Wed., Aug. 2, 6:30 p.m.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2006.