''A wonderful book ... His story is so extraordinary and so beautifully and deftly told ... heartbreaking'' Observer, Books of the Year ''The grace of Michaels''s style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel'' Giller Prize JuryLocked in a cabin, on a ship bound for Leningrad, Lev Termen types a letter to Clara, his ''one true love''. He recalls his early years as a scientist, inventing the musical theremin and other electric marvels, and the Kremlin''s dream that these creations could help infiltrate capitalism itself. Instead, Manhattan infiltrated Termen – he fell in love with the city''s jazz clubs and speakeasies, and with Clara, a beautiful young violinist. When Termen''s spy games fall apart, he returns to find the Motherland not quite as he left it. Exiled to a Siberian gulag, with nothing but his wits to keep him alive, Termen is drawn ever deeper into the labyrinth of Stalin''s Russia. Only his feelings for Clara, passing through the ether like the theremin''s song, seem to show a way out.

This story is about a pair of DEA agents who fought hard on the war against drugs. They started their war as independent agents, just working together. Over time and danger, they fell in love and continued the fight together. As their war progressed, they realized that they couldn't win at the street level and needed to go straight after the source of the drugs they saw every day. They soon learned that the primary source of most of the drug distribution was a cartel that, at the time, was the largest drug supplier on the planet. The lead agent of the pair made a vow that their independent war would not end until the leader of the cartel was apprehended in the United States instead of Mexico and sentenced to life in a supermax prison. The power of the cartel and its reach presented a formidable task for the two agents. They finally succeeded in June 2024 in El Paso, Texas. Today, the former cartel leader, after being sentenced to life in prison, lives out his life in the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

''A wonderful book ... His story is so extraordinary and so beautifully and deftly told ... heartbreaking'' Observer, Books of the Year ''The grace of Michaels''s style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel'' Giller Prize JuryLocked in a cabin, on a ship bound for Leningrad, Lev Termen types a letter to Clara, his ''one true love''. He recalls his early years as a scientist, inventing the musical theremin and other electric marvels, and the Kremlin''s dream that these creations could help infiltrate capitalism itself. Instead, Manhattan infiltrated Termen – he fell in love with the city''s jazz clubs and speakeasies, and with Clara, a beautiful young violinist. When Termen''s spy games fall apart, he returns to find the Motherland not quite as he left it. Exiled to a Siberian gulag, with nothing but his wits to keep him alive, Termen is drawn ever deeper into the labyrinth of Stalin''s Russia. Only his feelings for Clara, passing through the ether like the theremin''s song, seem to show a way out.

This story is about a pair of DEA agents who fought hard on the war against drugs. They started their war as independent agents, just working together. Over time and danger, they fell in love and continued the fight together. As their war progressed, they realized that they couldn't win at the street level and needed to go straight after the source of the drugs they saw every day. They soon learned that the primary source of most of the drug distribution was a cartel that, at the time, was the largest drug supplier on the planet. The lead agent of the pair made a vow that their independent war would not end until the leader of the cartel was apprehended in the United States instead of Mexico and sentenced to life in a supermax prison. The power of the cartel and its reach presented a formidable task for the two agents. They finally succeeded in June 2024 in El Paso, Texas. Today, the former cartel leader, after being sentenced to life in prison, lives out his life in the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.