The Sleeper: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christopher Dickey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2004

Kurt Kurtovic wanted nothing more than to be left in peace, to make a life with his wife and child in Westfield, Kansas. Then September 11 happened and Kurt knew they'd never be safe again unless he did what only he could do, take terror to the terrorists. He knew their world, knew how they worked, knew their weak points. He knew, because he'd been one of them.

But as Kurt wages his bloody campaign, hunting down his former Al-Qaeda comrades in Britain, Spain, and Africa, he becomes the hunted. And so do his wife and child back home. The most dangerous agents of terror, he discovers, are in the United States: those who don't want the wars to end; those who believe "we have waited thousands of years for Judgment Day, never knowing when it would come. But now we can put it on the calendar. We can fix a date." As a man-made apocalypse approaches, Kurt realizes that some of America's most ruthless enemies walk its corridors of power every day.

In the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré, this hard-driving narrative of vengeance and redemption by one of America's most prescient writers on espionage and terror is a riveting thriller about the horrors of the recent past -- and the dangers of the near future.

Editorial Reviews

From Bookmarks Magazine

A new thriller subgenre emerged after 9/11, which both capitalized on the terrorist attacks and tried to make sense of them. The Sleeper, by Newsweek magazine’s Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor, belongs to this group. Dickey cites his own “reporting about terrorist organizations, guerrilla wars, and government conspiracies since 1980” as inspiration for the novel’s action-packed scenes, which take place from Granada to Guantanamo. Most critics found Sleeper sophisticated, skillfully rendered, and disturbing—just ignore the ending. Only the Washington Post disagrees, citing the novel as “a tasteless endeavor” at best and, at worst, a shamefully distorted portrait of world affairs. Is apocalypse really approaching?

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Review

Kathy Reichs, author of Monday Mourning The Sleeper touches your deepest fears about the dangers in today's world. It's a novel about terrorism, but it's terrifying, too.

David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and author of Agents of Innocence and A Firing Offense Here's a promise: The Sleeper will keep you up late at night. Chris Dickey takes readers inside an operation to destroy deadly Al-Qaeda terrorist operations. He claims it's all imaginary, but it feels as real as the morning newspaper. For thriller readers, this is solid gold.

Gilles Kepel, author of Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam and The War for Muslim Minds Christopher Dickey's The Sleeper is a breathtaking thriller that takes you deep into the hearts and minds of those who fight on both sides of the 'War on Terror,' a universe where many have lost all moral balance and would use any means to achieve their ends. It captures the psyche of the radical Islamists and of their hunters, based on the author's intimate knowledge. A tour de force -- and great reading from cover to cover!

Bruce Hoffman, author of Inside Terrorism and Senior Fellow, Combating Terrorism Center, U.S. Military Academy In The Sleeper, Dickey paints a compelling and gripping picture of terrorists prepared to unleash the ultimate horror in order to destroy America. The story he tells is not only engrossing but also accurately depicts the challenges and choices we face in fighting the real war on terrorism. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743258770
• ISBN-13: 978-0743258777
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,464,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What ties all of Christopher Dickey's books together?

His most recent is "Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force -- The NYPD," chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of 2009. But before that came "a first-rate thriller," "The Sleeper," which followed his critically acclaimed memoir, "Summer of Deliverance," about his father, the poet and novelist James Dickey. "Innocent Blood," Chris's first novel, predicted in 1997 the waves of terror that would come at the United States, and got inside the heads of those who would bring them. "Expats," is a book of essays about traveling among the people of the Middle East -- particularly the displaced and misplaced Westerners who lived there in times of war. And Chris's first book, "With The Contras," in 1986, was not only an up-close account of combat in Nicaragua but a first-hand history of Central America at a time of ferocious revolutions and repression.

So, you'll say that what's common about Chris's books is combat, terror and emotional trauma. And that's partly true. But there is also another deeply felt theme: that of family as the ultimate source of human drama and also the social force that far too often is misunderstood, or ignored, in our efforts to grasp what's going on in the world around us. For more on this theme see pages 228-229 in the paperback edition of "Summer of Deliverance" or Location 3949 on the Kindle edition.


Chris's career as an editor, reporter and foreign correspondent spans 35 years. He is currently the Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine and The Daily Beast. Previously he worked for The Washington Post as Cairo Bureau Chief and Central America Bureau Chief. Chris's columns about counter-terrorism, espionage and the Middle East appear regularly now on TheDailyBeast.com. For links to recent columns and articles, visit www.ChristopherDickey.com.

Chris has written for Foreign Affairs, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, Rolling Stone, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic, among other publications. He is a frequent commentator on the BBC World Service, BBC television, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio and France24 as well as other television and radio networks.

Among his many honors are awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Inter-American Press Association and Georgetown University. Chris is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was formerly an Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow, and of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. In the fall of 2009 he was a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

And Chris's next book? He's deep into a true, untold story of espionage and international intrigue -- and, yes, combat, terror, trauma and families -- on the eve of the War Between the States.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Solid, Entertaining Book, September 15, 2004

By 

Daniel P. Bana (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sleeper: A Novel (Hardcover)

Neil Gordon's review of "The Sleeper" in the Washington Post Book World is a farce. What is the point of defining what a novelist's main goal should be ("to see the truth of the world around him and convey that truth to the reader"), and then faulting the author being reviewed for betraying this arbitrarily chosen "prime directive"? The whole thing smacks of an egomaniacal English professor spouting dictums that we should accept on faith because he knows who "Stendhal" is. I'm sure Gordon's copy of "The Sleeper" had "Show, don't tell!" scribbled frantically all over the margins. For readers that have actually formed their own ideas of what makes a good novel, his peremptory verdict is a bit premature.

Gordon's rant about Dickey's fictional Saddam possibly providing Kurt, the lead character, with WMD's is equally absurd. "Would Dickey print this outrageous canard in Newsweek? Of course he wouldn't... But why is he printing it here?" Because Dickey made it up! That's why it belongs in his novel, and not in Newsweek. Where is the issue there? Should we be shocked that it would be more exciting to read about a world where Saddam might have given out a WMD or two? Should we be outraged that in Dickey's fictional writing there is actually some, well, fiction? "The Sleeper" may have important truths to convey, but if you're going to look for these truths in a literal interpretation of its plot points, you probably shouldn't be reading fiction in the first place.

To put it bluntly, novelists have to make stuff up, or else they wouldn't be novelists, they would be historians. To go back to Stendhal, "The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent." Gordon knows that he can't really get away with panning Dickey for having fiction in his fiction. So he backtracks, saying that he's not upset about Dickey making stuff up, he's upset that Dickey is making stuff up and then using his investigative credentials as a selling point. (A point which should have at least been made at the outset, before the histrionic complaining about Dickey's flights of fancy.)

But the point about Dickey's credentials is that he is well suited to write about this stuff, not that we should believe everything in his book as fact. Steven Hawking would probably be good at writing a sci-fi book revolving around the physics of time travel. That doesn't mean that when he does we should all assume that he's saying that time travel is possible. ("Would Hawking print this outrageous canard in his next physics text book? Of course he wouldn't...) Is Dickey supposed to write a book of political intrigue and not mention on the book sleeve that he's been reporting on terrorism for over 10 years? ("Christopher Dickey lives in Paris and loves fruit-filled crepes and small animals...")

Regardless of the absurdity of Gordon's review, the very fact that someone who uses the phrase "Stendhalian representation of truth" didn't like this book should tell you all you need to know. Here is the low-down, stripped of ivory tower hot air: If you are looking for the straight truth about the Iraq war, don't read this book. That's what non-fiction is for. If you want to read an exciting book that creatively draws from the facts about Iraq and Homeland Security to tell an enthralling story (or as J. Peterman says "a ripping good yarn"), then you might like this book. You might not. Who knows.

I don't think this book is trying to communicate some deep spiritual message about the meaning of life. It's just a fascinating exploration of what happens when you take a couple of "what if" situations and let them play out. To whine about it not being "art" is like complaining that Will Smith isn't as good as Sidney Poitier while watching "Enemy of the State."

Daniel P. Bana ([e-mail])

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resonant with the ranging pulse of a post-9/11 American, September 13, 2004

By 

A. Ehrenkranz "teiresias got lasik" (Salt Lake City, Utah USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sleeper: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found Christopher Dickey's "The Sleeper" not just to be an a lucid narrative of a renegade patriot putting his own peace on the line for his family, but a compelling portrait of what it means to be an American today, sure of our need to fight but in question over who and what to fight against, used to wars when there are clear absolutes and defined goals, and faced with a climate where the professed enemy ("terror") is no more tangible than the values of freedom and liberty we are out to protect and defend.

Like "The Sleeper" 's protagonist Kurt Kurtovic, 9/11, at least temporarily, wiped out all the soul-searching, the jagged roads and winding pasts that many of us Americans took to sleep the night before, bringing us that next day to a jaw dropping impasse where nothing seemed the same and everything felt up in the air. And we wanted to do something, in whatever ways we could be of most service- for Kurt, it was going back into the bowels of the terror trade, a world in which he once thrived and which he is now ready to thrash in name of peace. And through his scavenger hunt from Kansas to Kenya for clues and old contacts, in search of honey merchants and jihadi training camps, his global pursuit of bad guys spawns more and more doubt if there are any good ones, even amongst those he trusts and answers to. And in the end... well, I don't want to be the "Spoiler" so I'll leave that to you.

The only main qualm I had with the book might be the depths at which the Dickey goes into the violence and torture used by and on the terrorists, but it is perhaps my own taste for the comforting that still finds such graphic details unsettling to fully conceive of, even if they are done in the name of saving lives. It's easy to forget the dirty work that comes with the territory of hunting down mal-intended extremists; back rubs don't make people talk and terrorists don't always just fall into our lap like the headlines often seem to indicate. The book might be fiction but it has the power and commands the empathy of the (all too) real world in which we now live in.

As an active reader , there are many things that press the "brew" button on my pot of skepticism, but here are three. One, book reviews full of judgment without any mention of substance about the story's content or any indication the reviewer read the book whatsoever. Two, labels affixed to genres of prose predicting the emotions a reader will have (you will be thrilled, you will "feel good"). Three, the flurry of journalists and authors implicitly or directly purporting themselves as "experts" on terrorism since that horrible morning 3 years ago when pre-9/11, like most of us, Al Queda sounded more like the name of a relief pitcher for the Expos than it did a well funded international network of Islamic fundamentalists hell-bent furthering the world divide by any means necessary.

This being said, while the Sleeper was definitely gripping, I wouldn't call it a thriller, but more mental and emotional fuel. Pardon the pun, but I wasn't much of a sleeper myself with all the threads of thought I was left to process after finishing it. And, knowing Mr. Dickey's work, as a Newsweek foreign correspondent and editor , including his book `Expats" on his travels in the Middle East, not to mention from a simple web search, the scores of articles he's penned from datelines around the Arab world since the 80's, it seems no stretch to count him amongst the most informed Western commentators on the changing landscape of the Anglo-Arab relations as well as the evolving nature of the war with those whose embrace terror as tactic. And clearly, as he footnotes in the book, his chameleon-like immersion as a globetrotting journalist into the circles of power-playing international statesmen and the ears to the pavement operatives at the heart of the post 9/11 world have been put to great imaginative use here, yielding a profoundly engaging and clear-headed story."The Sleeper" is certainly a telling look at the war of one individual but is also evocative of the many wars the bulk of us haven't realized we are fighting to this day.

Whether you fly through "The Sleeper" on a long airplane flight like I did or choose to digest it slowly from the tranquility of your bedroom, I'd highly suggest giving it a good read.

A.G.T.E.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enthralling thriller, September 1, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sleeper: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Westfield, Kansas on September 11, 2001, Kurt Kurtovic turned on the TV to see his world collapse along with the Twin Towers. He knows that was just the beginning as the terrorists have further plans because he was once one of them and knows how they think. Part Muslim and working in the Special Forces, he was drawn into the Arab propaganda when he fought in Bosnia. Kurt even met Bin Laden before returning home carrying a weapon that would kill many Americans. However, he no longer believes in the Jihad as he relishes his tranquil life with his wife Betsy and their daughter Miriam.

However, he knows Al Qaeda is coming again gathering all their cells and operatives to help with the next attack. Kurt meets with old contacts and learns that ships are coming with weapons to kill many Americans. Arrested and flown to Guantomino Bay, he serves as a mole providing Intel until his release back to his family so that he could be the bait to lure and trap the deadly leader THE SLEEPER.

The protagonist believes he made many mistakes in his youth, but when he realized his errors he refused to join the mass murdering of innocents. Because he was one of them, he understands how they think and more important how they feel; he becomes an unsung hero willing to take them on in his town to stop the plots. THE SLEEPER is an enthralling thriller that takes plausible concepts as stated by Homeland Security and puts them into a fabulous frightening story.

Harriet Klausner