The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis: read it in a sitting; remember it for the rest of your life. ” This unforgettable novel squanders no words in its brilliant, deft depictions of love, of memory, of compassion &, ultimately, despite its title, of loyalty”. (Edith Pearlman). ” Taut, fierce, forensically insightful. Compulsive & profound”. (A D Miller). ”A moral thriller”. (Aleksandar Hemon). ” Definitively establishes him as one of the foremost writers of his generation”. (Ben Fountain). Two men meet on a park bench in Jerusalem: a politician, on the eve of a controversial stand against his government, & a Mossad agent, sent to dissuade him with the threat of blackmail. Neither backs down. Escaping the furore he`s unleashed, the politician & his lover head to Crimea & a resort on the Black Sea to lie low. But the fierce battle between political principles & personal loyalties has followed them to this faded Russian backwater, & a shocking encounter awaits them. In its depiction of a man whose principles are tested to the utmost extremes, The Betrayers cuts to the very heart of our troubled times. David Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1973 & emigrated with his parents to Toronto in 1980. His first novel, The Free World, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize & was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His collection Natasha & Other Stories was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year & won the Commonwealth Writers` Regional Prize for First Book. In 2010 he was selected as one of the New Yorker`s `20 under 40`, celebrating the twenty most promising fiction writers under the age of forty. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages.