title: A Map of Betrayal: A Novel
author:  Ha Jin 
description: [A] heartbreaking portrait of a spy torn between two countries. . . . . Poignant. . . . Spare yet powerful.<br />Yvonne Zipp,<i>The Christian Science Monitor</i><br /><br />One of the great triumphs of <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> is how it uncovers and underscores the similarities between the domestic and the political, the family and the larger culture. . . . Lilian strives not to judge but to understand. Shesearchesfor a capacious, forgiving, and subtle interpretation of a struggling soul. Garys contradictions, rationalizations, and defenses are humanized in a way that makes his life-defining reversals believable Even as he acts in duplicitous ways, we empathize with him, isolated and lonely in an unfamiliar country, falsely reassured by his handler that his Chinese family is being well taken care of, striving to be a good employee and patriot. <br /> Priscilla Gilman, <i>The Boston Globe</i><br /> <i></i><br /> Ha, a former Peoples Liberation Army soldier who has spent his adult life as an academic in the U.S., deftly explores the parallels between an immigrants experience and an informantsthe ambivalence, the delusion, the sense of warring loyalties.<br /> <i>The New Yorker</i><br /><br />The book stands out for the way it straddles a number of worldsChina and the U.S., family life and adulteryand in Shang's case, the torturous inner life of a man torn between loyalty to two nations.<br /> Alan Cheuse, NPR<br /> <br /> Continues his astute examination of the immigrant Chinese experience in this country. . . . A fascinating window into contemporary China, especially the life of young men and women: their dating practices, their use of new technology, and their uneasy relationship with the Chinese government. . . . Ha Jins writing has a serene simplicity. He slowly and deliberately constructs the edifice of his narrative, and because of this gradual buildup and Garys apparent resignation to his fate, the last third of the novel packs a powerful punch that is both poignant and unexpected. It is comforting as a reader to be in the hands of such a masterful storyteller.<br /> David Takami, <i>The Seattle Times</i><br /> <br /> With one foot in China and the other in the United States, Ha Jin is the quintessential Chinese-American writer. . . . In his absorbing new book, <i>A Map of Betrayal</i>, the author offers his most searing portrait yet of divided loyalties.<br /> Kevin Nance, <i>Chicago Tribune</i><br /> <br /> International intrigue and familial secrets merge in <i>A Map of Betrayal</i>, a subtle page-turner by the National Book Award-winning author of <i>Waiting</i>. In the vein of John le Carr, Ha Jin delves into his profoundly ambivalent antihero Gary Shang, a high-ranking CIA translator who passed state secrets to operatives in Maos China from 1949 until 1980, when he was finally outed as a mole. . . . The novel expertly chronicles the fraught relationship between the U.S. and modern China with plainspoken clarity. . . . <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> works on two levelsas a startling thriller about a double agent whose carefully regimented life falls apart as soon as his cover gets blown, and as a moving family saga, the story of a hardworking immigrant father whose reticence masks wells of deeply held secrets.<br /> Stephan Lee, <i>Entertainment Weekly</i><br /><br />With a National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkners and a Pulitzer nomination under his belt,Ha Jin is one of America's most decorated living novelists. He's made a name for himself writing beautiful stories centered in China, where he was born and raised. . . . In a way, <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> isan innovative twist on an immigrant novel, exploring themes of identity, assimilation and confused loyalties through the high-stakes narrative of a spy novel. . . .Apoignant novel that portrays the emotional drama of an immigrant torn apart by conflicting loyalties andbone-deep loneliness.If only he could become a citizen of both countries, a man of the world, comes Gary's lament.He may be a traitor and a superspy, but his tragedy is relatable, almost simple. It should strike many close to home.Steph Cha,<i>Los Angeles Times</i><br /><br />A lonely Chinese spy is forced to leave his young wife and remarry in the U.S. in this compassionate study of a man caught between two wives and two countries. . . . Jin quietly piles up facts, creating an impossible situation in which a good, patriotic man becomes emotionally entangled with two nations intent on deceiving each other. A confident and knowledgeable explicator of China, Jin probes the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the inequity between country Chinese and city Chinese, Internet censorship, the national problems of food contamination and the illiteracy of more than half the population, while placing historical touches throughout (such as the Russian astronaut dog Laika and the Kennedy assassination). . . . Written without the slightest whiff of melodrama, in a cool, factual, unadorned style, <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> is a quietly humane, painstakingly detailed portrait of an idealistic man who tries to set himself morally apart. Ever present in this dense, compelling tale are provocative questions about the nature of patriotism: When do you betray your country? When does your country betray you?Nick DiMartino, <i>Shelf Awareness</i><br /><br />Ha Jin has captured the painful, often humdrum essence of the hidden agent. . . . In chapters alternating with Garys chronological story, Ha Jin follows the journey of Garys half-American daughter, Lilian, as she searches for the truth about her father by reading his diaries and by traveling to modern-day China. We see America through the eyes of a Chinese migr, torn between an old loyalty and growing affection for the adopted land he is betraying. Simultaneously, we see China through the eyes of his daughter, discovering whatever she can about the family her father left behind. . . . [Ha Jin] is a voice at once outside and inside the culture.Ben Macintyre, front cover, <i>The New York Times Book Review</i><br /> <br /> <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> is the gripping story of a daughter coming to terms with her family history, set against a backdrop of political change. . . . A haunting tale of two families and two countries that are linked together by the life of a single spy. . . . Poignant . . . . The novel closes with a delicate, ironic twist that one associates with the best of Jins fiction.Lauren Bufferd, <i>BookPage</i><br /> <br /> Jin doesn't lead you, blindfolded and sweating, around countless corners to deliver cheap surprises. His writingclean, simple, and engaginginstead focuses on the risks that Gary and his American daughter, Lilian, have taken to find continuity in their homes and families. . . . Jin bridges the gap between character and reader. I've never been a spy and am not from an immigrant family, but I felt Gary's isolation and Lilian's desperation as my own. By transferring these emotions to the reader, Jin has created more than a novel; he has crafted an experience. <i>A Map of Betrayal</i> is not just something that entertains but something that teaches.Jared Shaffer, <i>Everyday eBook</i> <br /><br />Beautifully written. . . . Brilliant fiction, a story of shifting personal loyalties across broad swaths of territory, that can only be done by one with a deep knowledge of two cultures: in [Jins] case, China and America.Michael D. Langan, <i>Buffalo News</i><br /> <br /> Ha Jin presents a chillingly matter-of-fact tale of espionage and treachery told in alternating narratives. . . . [As this] brooding, many-layered story of delusion and betrayal suspensefully unfolds, Ha Jin offers startlingly redefining views of the strategic evolution of U.S.-Chinese relations during the nuclear arms race, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and Ping-Pong diplomacy. A sharply ironic, stealthily devastating tale of the tragic cost of blind patriotism, told by a master of clarifying fiction, uniting the personal and the geopolitical.<i>Booklist</i> (starred)<br /> <br /> "Like his exquisite National Book Award-winning <i>Waiting</i>, Jin's latest is a meticulous observation of a manipulated life only partially lived. . . . [Jin] deftly plots a family history caught between uncompromising attachments and inevitable betrayals. Spy story it may be, but what lingers is the immeasurable human toil."<br /> <i>Library Journal</i> (starred)<br /><br />From the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner-winning author Jin (<i>Waiting</i>) comes a womans inquisition into the limits of her fathers loyalty to his nation and family. . . . Jins subtle prose entrances. . . . A captivating tale that probes the Chinese political state over the past half century.<i>Publishers Weekly</i> (boxed, starred)<br /><br />Masterful and bittersweet storytelling that operates on a number of different levels . . . Satisfies like the best of John le Carr, similarly demystifying and deglamorizing the process of gathering information and the ambiguous morality that operates in shades of gray . . . The issues of love and loyalty that permeate the novel arent merely political, but deeply personal. <i>Kirkus Reviews </i>(starred)
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  PRAISE FOR HA SEONG-NAN
  
  
  “These mesmerizing stories of disconnection and detritus unfurl with the
  surreal illogic of dreams—it’s as impossible to resist their pull as it is to
  understand, in retrospect, how circumstance succeeded circumstance to finally
  deliver the reader into a moment as indelible as it is unexpected. Janet
  Hong’s translation glitters like a blade.”
  
  
  —Susan Choi, author of _Trust Exercise_
  
  
  “ _Flowers of Mold_ shows Ha Seong-nan to be a master of the strange story.
  Here, things almost happen, and the weight of their almost happening hangs
  over the narrative like a threat. Or they do happen, and then characters go on
  almost like they haven’t, much to the reader’s dismay. Or a story builds up
  and then, where most authors would pursue things to the last fraying thread of
  their narrative, Ha elegantly severs the rest of the story and delicately ties
  it off. And as you read more of these stories, they begin to chime within 