海角大神

A Chinese translator spends 30 years undercover at the CIA in National Book Award winner Ha Jin鈥檚 spare yet powerful new novel,聽A Map of Betrayal.

The novel is far more John Le Carr茅 than Ian Fleming. Gary Shang drives a Buick, not an Aston-Martin, and wields a camera, not a gun. He鈥檚 known as a quiet man with a taste for jazz and Hank Williams whose chrysanthemums are the envy of the neighborhood.

But in the spring of 2010, Lilian Shang, Gary鈥檚 American-born daughter, learns about the desperate loneliness behind Gary鈥檚 long mission after she receives her father鈥檚 diary from his former mistress: 鈥渟ix morocco-bound volumes, each measuring eight inches by five. I hadn鈥檛 known he kept a journal, and I had assumed that the FBI had seized all the papers left by him, Gary Shang, the biggest Chinese spy ever caught in North America.鈥�

As Lilian begins to piece together her father鈥檚 life, she journeys to China to search for his first wife, Yufeng, and the son and daughter his handler didn鈥檛 tell him about until he had been embedded with the US for years. Gary was the kind of spy known as a 鈥渘ail,鈥� the handler, Bingwen Chu, tells Lilian.

聽鈥淎 nail must remain in its position 鈥� and rot with the wood it鈥檚 stuck in, so a spy of the nail type is more or less a goner,鈥� he says. 鈥淕ary must have known that.鈥�

Only, as becomes clear as Lilian reads her father鈥檚 diary, Gary didn鈥檛. He was haunted by fears for his wife and the twins he never met, but couldn鈥檛 risk contacting them for fear of bringing the wrath of the Communist government down on his family. His handler keeps telling him everything is OK at home, and that Yufeng is getting his monthly salary, yet somehow always forgets to bring a picture of her or the children to their biennial meetings.

The more she reads, the more Lilian becomes convinced her father was both betrayer and betrayed.

The novel unfolds on two tracks, as Lilian hunts for her father鈥檚 family in 2010 and learns they have secrets of their own, while chronicling her father鈥檚 past as objectively as possible.

Gary tries not to become too attached to life in America. This becomes especially difficult after the Chinese government encourages him to remarry and have a new family, so that he will better fit in with his colleagues.

鈥淚n the center of his plight may have resided this fact: mentally, he couldn鈥檛 settle down anywhere,鈥� Jin writes. 鈥淗is heart was always elsewhere. Wherever he went, he鈥檇 feel out of place, like a stranded traveler.鈥�

Jin delves into the emotional costs to both Gary and Nellie, his American wife, who can tell that her husband is distant and secretive but has no idea she is married to a spy.

鈥淓very worthy spy must have iron patience, being capable of taking refuge in solitude while biding his time,鈥� Lilian reads in her father鈥檚 diary. Or, as Nellie鈥檚 dad put it, 鈥渢he dude kept a poker face even at his own wedding.鈥�

While their marriage could in no way be described as a happy one, Gary can鈥檛 help feeling an attachment to Nellie and pride in the smart, bookish daughter he plans to leave behind to return to his original family. In addition to an appreciation for Western supermarkets and libraries, he becomes a fan of the NBA and the films of John Wayne.

Or as Chu tells Lilian, 鈥淣o fish can remain 鈥� unaffected by the water it swims in.鈥�

Near the end of the novel, there are some curious omissions. Lilian doesn鈥檛 ever talk about the repercussions she and her mother surely would have suffered after her father鈥檚 secret was revealed, or how she felt after learning about her father鈥檚 double life.

But its portrait of Gary is a poignant one of a man torn between two cultures, who has undergone some herculean mental gymnastics to justify his betrayal of one for the other.

At his trial, he argues that he is a patriot of both the US and China. 鈥淭hey are like father and mother, so as a son I cannot separate the two and I love them both.鈥�

The heartbreak underlying his fate is that he is telling the truth.