Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | FICTION WIN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | FICTION WIN | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Prepare to meet the world's most dangerous man . . .
Nicholai Hel-genius, mystic, and the perfect, formidable assassin-was first introduced to readers in Shibumi , the classic #1 bestseller by master storyteller Trevanian. Now critically acclaimed author Don Winslow continues Hel's story for the first time in this all-new, blockbuster thriller.
SATORI
It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu , or "naked kill," is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary "proximity sense"-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world's most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.
The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. It's almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori -the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.
Author Notes
Don Winslow was born in New York City on October 31, 1953. He received a degree in African history from the University of Nebraska. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a movie theater manager, private investigator, safari guide, actor, theater director and consultant. His works include A Cool Breeze on the Underground, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, The Winter of Frankie Machine, Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, and the Neal Carey Mysteries series. His novel California Fire and Life won the Shamus Award. In 2016, he won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best crime thriller of the year for The Cartel. He has also written for film and television.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Winslow spins a sequel adventure yarn very nearly as entertaining as its predecessor, the 1979 thriller Shibumi. Set in the Far East in 1951, it features a 26-year-old version of Shibumi's popular protagonist, mystic and master assassin Nicolai Hel. Holter Graham give the prose a splendidly nuanced narration, using a calm, subtly lilting voice in charting the progress of the "more Asian than Western" hero, beginning with his release from a U.S. prison in Tokyo courtesy of the CIA, which put him there, through dramatic sequences of romance, violence, honor, and betrayal, and ending with a slam-bang confrontation with the villains in the underground tunnels of Vietnam. Along the way, Holter makes his Far Eastern accent more prominent, giving voice to the Asian characters, and switches to a touch of French for the love interest, a beautiful spy named Solange; Russian for several of the secondary villains; and a guttural, ugly American for the book's major protagonist. A Grand Central hardcover. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In his 1979 international best-seller, Shibumi, acclaimed author Trevanian introduced readers to handsome mystic and ingenious assassin Nicholai Hel. In this compelling prequel, Winslow, whose popular novels include The Dawn Patrol (2008) and Savages (2010), details Hel's life leading up to Trevanian's opus. Satori opens in the fall of 1951, in the throes of the Korean War. Twenty-six-year-old Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Now his captors are offering to release him at a price. He must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. Though Hel is blond with striking green eyes, his worldview is more Eastern than Western. (He was raised by an aristocratic Russian mother in Shanghai and later lived in Japan, where he studied the ancient and notoriously challenging board game, Go.) Hel is a master of hoda korosu, the naked kill, and blessed with an uncanny sense of proximity, which makes him hyperaware of potential danger. He'll need every tool in his deadly dossier to earn freedom. Winslow renders breathless suspense and a cast of dark, devious characters from all corners of the globe. Recommend this one to fans of Baldacci and le Carré as well as, of course, Trevanian.--Block, Allison Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
In this homage to Trevanian's cult classicShibumi(1979), Winslow (Savages, 2010, etc.)fills in some of Trevanian's main character's back story.In Shibumi, Nicholai Hel was already an accomplished assassin, called out of retirement to perform one more job. Winslow takes the reader back a few decades to the early 1950s to explain how Hel got into the assassination business in the first place. He picks up the thread after Hel's three-year stint in an American jail for the murder of his mentor in the chaos of postWorld War II Japan. The Americans recognize his unique abilitiesincluding his mastery of several languages and thehoda korosumartial artand offer him a deal: He can have his freedom and a chance to even the score with those who have mistreated him in prison if he will travel to Beijing under the guise of a French arms dealer and assassinate a Soviet official. After a brief period of training in Western ways with the lovely Solange, for whom Hel develops deep romantic feelings, he travels to Mao's China to complete his assignment. Things get extremely complicated in the aftermath of the Beijing mission, and suddenly Hel doesn't know whom to trust. Still operating under his French arms-dealing alias, Hel escapes to Vietnam, where bitter tensions between rival factions are already beginning to erupt in violence. There, he must figure out which side he is on, as he navigates the treacherous political climate of pre-war Vietnam, while looking desperately for a way to reunite with Solange. Fans ofShibumi'sextravagent style will no doubt enjoy Winslow's contribution to the Hel story, and, just like Trevanian, Winslow imbues the James Bondesque superspy atmosphere with a deep knowledge of Eastern cultures, including the ancient Japanese game of Go. And as in Shibumi, there is plenty of fun to be had for readers willing to suspend their credulity for a few hundred pages.Perfect for Shibumi fans and anyone else who likes their espionage over the top.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In his 1979 classic Shibumi, Trevanian introduced assassin Nicholai Hel, fluent in seven languages, a master of a form of martial arts called "naked kill," and in possession of "proximity sense" that enables him not only to know when someone approaches him but to sense how that person is feeling. That novel was fluff but fun, not so much for its action as for the over-the-top James Bond-like touches and Trevanian's mordant sense of humor. (The CIA is represented by the Deputy International Liaison Duty Officer, whose acronym is never spelled out.) Now Shamus Award winner Winslow (Savages) continues the story, fleshing out one incident from Hel¿s past that was mentioned in the first book but not elaborated: a CIA-sponsored assassination attempt against the Soviet commissioner in China. VERDICT This is a straightforward adventure book: there's a good deal of killing and sex in it but little of the humor of the original. A so-so thriller that peters out toward the end. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/10.]-David Keymer, Modesto, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Nicholai Hel watched the maple leaf drop from the branch, flutter in the slight breeze, then fall gently to the ground. It was beautiful. Savoring the first glimpse of nature that he'd had after three years of solitary confinement in an American prison cell, he breathed in the crisp autumn air, let it fill his lungs, and held it for a few moments before he exhaled. Haverford mistook it for a sigh. "Glad to be out?" the agent asked. Nicholai didn't respond. The American was as nothing to him, a mere merchant like the rest of his compatriots, peddling espionage instead of automobiles, shaving cream, or Coca-Cola. Nicholai had no intention of engaging in meaningless conversation, never mind allowing this functionary access to his personal thoughts. Of course he was glad to be out, he thought as he looked back at the bleak gray walls of Sugamo Prison, but why did Westerners feel a need to voice the obvious, or attempt to give expression to the ineffable? It was the nature of a maple leaf to drop in the autumn. I killed General Kishikawa, as close to a father as I ever had, because it was my filial nature -- and duty -- to do so. The Americans imprisoned me for it because they could do nothing else, given their nature. And now they offer me my "freedom" because they need me. Nicholai resumed his walk along the pebbled path flanked by the maple trees. A bit surprised that he felt a twinge of anxiety at being outside the closed, small space of his cell, he fought off the wave of dizziness brought on by the open sky. This world was large and empty; he had no one left in it except himself. His own adequate company for three years, he was reentering a world that he no longer knew at the age of twenty-six. Haverford had anticipated this, having consulted a psychologist on the issues that face prisoners going back into society. The classic Freudian, replete with the stereotypical Viennese accent, had advised Haverford that "the subject" would have become used to the limitations of his confinement and feel overwhelmed at first by the sheer space suddenly confronting him in the outside world. It would be prudent, the doctor warned, to transfer the man to a small, windowless room with voluntary access to a yard or garden so that he could gradually acclimate himself. Open spaces, or a crowded city with its bustling population and incessant noise, would be likely to upset the subject. So Haverford had arranged for a small room in a quiet safe house in the Tokyo suburbs. But from what he could learn from what there was to be learned of Nicholai Hel, he couldn't imagine the man being easily overwhelmed or upset. Hel displayed preternatural self-possession, a calm that was almost condescending, confidence that often crossed the line into arrogance. On the surface, Hel appeared to be a perfect blend of his aristocratic Russian mother and his samurai surrogate father, the war criminal Kishikawa, whom he had saved from the shame of a hangman's noose with a single finger-thrust to the trachea. Despite his blond hair and vibrant green eyes, Haverford thought, Hel is more Asian than Western. He even walks like an Asian -- his arms crossed behind his back so as to take up as little space as possible and not cause inconvenience to anyone coming from the other direction, his tall, thin frame slightly stooped in modesty. European in appearance, Haverford decided, Asian in substance. Well, it made sense -- he was raised by his émigré mother in Shanghai, and then mentored by Kishikawa when the Japs took the city. After the mother died, Kishikawa moved the boy to Japan to live with and study under a master of the impossibly complicated and nuanced board game Go, a sort of Jap chess, albeit a hundredfold more difficult. Hel became a master in his own right. So is it any wonder that Hel thinks like an Asian? Nicholai sensed the man's thoughts on him. The Americans are incredibly transparent, their thoughts as obvious as stones at the bottom of a clear, still pool. He didn't care what Haverford thought of him -- one doesn't solicit the opinions of a grocery clerk -- but it did annoy him. Shifting his attention to the sun on his face, he felt it warm his skin. "What would you like?" Haverford asked. "In the sense of what?" Haverford chuckled. Most men emerging from long confinement wanted three things -- a drink, a meal, and a woman, not necessarily in that order. But he was not going to indulge Hel's arrogance, so he answered, in Japanese, "In the sense of what would you like?" Mildly impressed that Haverford spoke Japanese, and interested that he refused to surrender such a small stone on the board, Nicholai responded, "I don't suppose that you could organize an acceptable cup of tea." "In fact," Haverford said, "I've arranged a modest cha-kai. I hope you find it acceptable." A formal tea ceremony, Nicholai thought. How interesting. From the Hardcover edition. Excerpted from Satori by Don Winslow All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.