Readers will be more a black-and-white issue. Instead, because of the demands of a thriller, weĪre left only with the question of treason – the merit or condemnation of sharing information with a dubious ally – which for the characters and most Kanon’s decision to end the novel before the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan is I think unfortunateīecause we are deprived of the grayer ethical complexities that the historical Oppenheimer confronted. Self-contained world of work and recreation. The war in Europe and a Life issue that reveals the first images of the Nazi camps, little of what happens elsewhere filters into their

Apart from the news of Roosevelt’s death, the end of “ghost” in which the only communication with the outside world is a post office address in Santa Fe. Interesting facets of the novel are Kanon’s accounts of the desert and the isolation of those who are working on the Project. The core of this novel, particularly since the dead man was a German émigré, persecuted by the Nazis and tortured by the Soviets.Īpart from the mystery that is grippingly narrated and a predictable love affair between Connolly and the wife of one of the scientists, the most Physicist Klaus Fuchs who passed to his Soviet handlers detailed information regarding the atomic weapons’ design, we can be certain that espionage is at Since we historically know that the Project was infiltrated by two Soviet spies, most notably the British Or is related to security, the Army is unsure. Whether his demise is the result of a homosexual encounter that went badly

General Leslie Groves, who is responsible for security, calls upon a civilian intelligence officer, MichaelĬonnolly, to investigate the violent death of Karl Bruner, a security officer. Remote New Mexico hilltop near Santa Fe where the scientists of the Manhattan Project, under the project director Robert Oppenheimer, are developing theĪtom bomb during the closing months of the war. In his debut novel Los Alamos (1997), Kanon is better at capturing the historical milieu than exploring moral conundrums.

Defectors joseph kanon review