- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (8 July 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571210317
- ISBN-13: 978-0571210312
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 1.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,441,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Eoin McNamee
Critics pronounced the spy novel dead after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Poet Game shows that it is alive, well and living in Manhattan.
Review
Sami Amir arrives in Brooklyn via Iran, and enters a universe of militants, spies and arms suppliers. Unsure of his true purpose, he is sent into New York to investigate dark rumours of terrorist plots set to erupt in Times Square on New Year's Eve. This is Salar Abdoh's first novel and was written in 1999.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
21 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
thoughtfull and intelligent thriller
2 Mar 2000
Format:Hardcover
In the Poet Game, Sami Amir is an Iranian spy caught between the powers-that-be in Iran, employees of the Libyan government, and United States intelligence services. Everywhere he turns he confronts liars. Though reviewers seem not to have noticed this, the "poet" of the title is a convenient metonym for "liar," as Abdoh spins out his own version of the old Platonic idea that all poets are liars. In this novel all liars are also in their own way poets. Along with "Hunting Down Amanda," "The Poet Game" is the most intelligent thriller to be published in years.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Intelligent, politically accurate, & cunningly crafted
16 Mar 2000
Format:Hardcover
The use of a character that could straddle two worlds was a brilliant idea by S. Abdoh. Although the Iranian and American political philosophies have been at odds for the last two decades, Sami Amir's character and the suspenseful plot of this novel created surprisingly plausible twist of events. A very enjoyable and politically insightful novel.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Brilliance
19 Oct 2001
Format:Paperback
You often read the back of a literary thriller and see that, yet once again, the author of the book has been compared to the great John Le Carre or even the greater Graham Greene. Usually I take such comparisons with a grain of salt. But being a fan of the genre, I cannot dismiss such comparisons and end up reading the works, often much to my disappointment. There was no disappointment with The POET GAME. This literary thriller pretty much shatters all the boundaries of the genre I have ever come across, and I've come across quite a few in my time. The simplicity of the language and ease with which the story moves is like a contrapuntal dance to a backdrop of terror and betrayal beyond anyone's imagination. The author, Salar Abdoh, knows the territory too well. I don't know if he's been there and done that or if he has access to sources few, if any, readers and even writers of this type of book have. If you want to know the psychology behind what just took place in America on September 11th of 2001 you'd better read this book. I've read many books by other writers who thought they were giving a portrayal of what the men on the other end of the war look like. Well, those authors often failed where Mr. Abdoh succeeds. The book is a tragedy in waiting. I don't want to give more away. I read the first page where the author was describing the different personality traits of various Middle Eastern operatives, and I thought: wow! this guy seems like he's come right out of the trenches of southern Lebanon or some place similar. He may or may not have, but the portrayal he gives is chilling, stupendously written and far above the inanities of your usual thriller with too much gadgetry and not enough psychology. If there is any shortcoming to the work it's that I would have liked the book to go on another hundred pages. I didn't want it to end. But end it did, on a note that well ... I don't want to give the story away.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
