The English Teacher

June 20, 2016
Former Israeli intelligence officer Reichter Atir makes his U.S. debut with this absorbing thriller. After Rachel Goldschmitt, a retired Mossad agent living in London, leaves a cryptic phone message with her former handler, known only as Ehud, she disappears. Fearful that Rachael may be unstable and reveal classified information, Mossad assigns Ehud to track her down. What follows is a fascinating look at Rachel’s undercover career in the Arab world as an unassuming English teacher by day, spy by night. Flashbacks chronicle the decade Rachel spent undercover, from her first assassination—an awkward but brutally swift affair in a hotel elevator—to the conflict she faces when she falls in love with an Arab man who knows her only as the sweet English teacher with the British accent. Along the way, readers are treated to all the granular frustrations, mundane indignities, and utter loneliness that can accompany undercover work, details rarely covered in most tales of espionage. Agent: Deborah Harris, Deborah Harris Agency.

June 15, 2016
An ex-Mossad agent sets off a scramble at the agency when she disappears.Rachel's father has died and she's traveled to London to settle his estate, but her thoughts are filled with melancholy for the relationship the two failed to cement before she left home. When she finds a box of letters from her former handler, Ehud, in which he explains to her father that Rachel is working for Mossad--a detail she was forbidden to share with him herself--she decides she's had enough and vanishes--but only after calling Ehud and leaving him with a cryptic message: "My father died....He died for the second time." Her disappearance sets off alarms in Israeli intelligence circles: although Rachel has been retired for some time, what she knows about Mossad's operations and key intelligence she developed could be ruinous. They need to find her and find her fast. Ehud and Joe, another retired agent, begin the search for the woman who is wanted "dead or alive," and, as they continue, Ehud, long in love with Rachel, tells Joe her story. The point of view switches back and forth between Rachel as she pursues her missions and Ehud, who narrates Rachel's story until this point. While the details of a covert operative's life and methods are certainly fascinating, Atir's style is not. Ehud and Rachel share the same voice, rendering the narrative strangely monotonous. It's not a bad voice, but it never varies, even when the stakes change from forbidden love to a risky maneuver involving biological weapons. Ultimately, Rachel's life comes across as sad, and she's painted as capable but damaged. Readers will have to work hard to care about her since there's little to justify Ehud's undying love. Atir appreciates subtle spycraft and knows his business, but this tale is often morose and features a woman who can be less likable than the people she seeks to best in her subterfuge.

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November 15, 2016

After attending her father's funeral in London, Rachel Goldschmitt, a former spy for the Israeli intelligence service, disappears. Her former handler is brought out of retirement to find her in this page-turning thriller by a retired brigadier general. The book spent months with the Israeli civilian and military censorship committees, and numerous changes and omissions were made before it was approved for publication in Israel in 2013. It is the third of Atir's four novels but the first to be translated into English. (LJ Xpress Reviews, 8/12/16)

Read-Alikes Duet in Beirut and Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg by Mishka Ben-David, Hesh Kestin's The Lie, Edeet Ravel's "Tel Aviv Trilogy" (Ten Thousand Lovers; Look for Me; A Wall of Light), and Daniel Silva's "Gabriel Allon" series.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
Only a few key people in Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, know of Rachel Goldschmitt, but she is one of Mossad's most effective spies. Fresh from training, Rachel was embedded in a Muslim nation for four years, teaching English there while uncovering secrets that helped keep Israel from harm. But even Ehud, once her case officer, realizes that all he really knows about Rachel is what she permitted him to see. Now long retired, a lonely widower still in love with Rachel, Ehud is shocked by a cryptic phone call from her. She then vanishes, and Ehud is called back to Mossad to help find her. Atir, a retired Israeli Defense Force general, makes his English-language debut with this nuanced, thoughtful, and powerfully plausible consideration of the emotional toll paid by lone combatants undercover in very hostile environs. The English Teacher is also a love story, portraying both Rachel's love for a Muslim man and Ehud's never-spoken love for his agent. Espionage fans will find the tradecraft engaging, but this novel will also appeal to any reader looking for insightful writing about the human condition.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)