Joseph Kanon

Joseph Kanon will sign and discuss his newest book, Leaving Berlin (Atria; $27).

Joseph Kanon is the author of five novels, Los Alamos, which won the Edgar Award for best first novel; The Good German, which was made into a film starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett; The Prodigal Spy and Alibi, which earned Kanon the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers;and Istanbul Passage, to be released in May, 2012. He is also a recipient of The Anne Frank Human Writers Award for his writings on the aftermath of the Holocaust. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a book publishing executive. He lives in New York City with his wife, literary agent Robin Straus. They have two sons.

Location: Street: 2342 Bissonnet St Additional: City: Houston, Province: Texas Postal Code: 77005 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Joseph Kanon is coming to Books & Books to discuss his latest historical thriller, Istanbul Passage. Kanon is the distinguished author of five previous novels, including The Good German, which was made into a film with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Once again, Kanon manages to flawlessly blend fact and fiction, this time with a haunting novel about the dawn of the Cold War. The novel takes readers deep inside the murky cat-and-mouse of compromise and betrayal that would come to define the entire post-war era. Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Istanbul Passage shows once again why Kanon has been hailed by The Boston Globe as the "heir apparent to Graham Greene."

Location: Street: 130 Main Street City: Westhampton Beach, Province: Florida Postal Code: 11978 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Former editor-in-chief and CEO and president of the publishing company Houghton Mifflin, Edgar Award winner Joseph Kanon may be best known for his historical mystery The Good German, which was made into a movie starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Kanon was also the recipient of the Hammett Award for Prodigal Spy and Alibi. Istanbul Passage is Kanon’s latest standalone mystery, and is jam-packed with the type of espionage and intrigue he is renowned for. Photo by Marion Ettlinger

Location: Street: 2810 Artesia Blvd. City: Redondo Beach, Province: California Postal Code: 90278 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

A neutral capital straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul has spent the war as a magnet for refugees and spies. Even American businessman Leon Bauer has been drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs and courier runs for the Allied war effort. Now as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of post-war life, he is given one more assignment, a routine job that goes fatally wrong, plunging him into a tangle of intrigue and moral confusion.

Played out against the bazaars and mosques and faded mansions of this knowing, ancient Ottoman city, Leon's attempt to save one life leads to a desperate manhunt and a maze of shifting loyalties that threatens his own. How do you do the right thing when there are only bad choices to make? Istanbul Passage is the story of a man swept up in the aftermath of war, an unexpected love affair, and a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it.

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Joseph Kanon

Kanon signs Stardust (Atria $28) kanon"Spectacular in every way...wonderfully imagined, wonderfully written, an urgent personal mystery set against the sweep of glamorous and sinister history. Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape and it's a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic authority."-- Lee Child Hollywood, 1945. Ben Collier has just arrived from wartorn Europe to find that his brother, Daniel, has died in mysterious circumstances. Why would a man with a beautiful wife, a successful career in the movies, and a heroic past choose to kill himself? Determined to uncover the truth, Ben enters the maze of the studio system and the uneasy world beneath the glossy shine of the movie business. For this is the moment when politics and the dream factories are beginning to collide as Communist witch hunts render the biggest stars and star makers vulnerable. Even here, where the devastation of Europe seems no more real than a painted movie set, the war casts long and dangerous shadows. When Ben learns troubling facts about his own family's past, he is caught in the middle of a web of deception that shakes his moral foundation to its core. Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Stardust flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller evoking both the glory days of the movies and the emergence of a dark strain of American political life. It brilliantly proves why Joseph Kanon has been hailed as the "heir apparent to Graham Greene" (The Boston Globe). (laamsden)… (more)