The Betrayers, a new novel by the Canadian Jewish writer David Bezmozgis (Natasha, The Free World), centers on the story of Baruch Kotler, a Soviet dissident turned Israeli politician whose political career has suddenly ground to a halt after the revelation of an affair. Disgraced, he decamps with his mistress to Crimea, where, through a plot twist, the two end up living in a cramped house with the man who had betrayed Kotler to the KGB and thereby consigned him to thirteen years in the Gulag. The Betrayers, writes Boris Fishman, is masterfully crafted, possesses a distinctive and elegant style, and is even fun to read. What’s more, it manages to overcome one of the great challenges of literature with a political theme:
The Betrayers offers a lesson for anyone who has taken for granted the Lit 101 notion that politics is an awkward presence in literature: in strictly subordinating its many political observations to the demands of character—the author never allows himself to show up and polemicize—it achieves a seamlessness that marks it as the most persuasive “political” novel in years. And in creating antagonists who have a lot of catching up to do, Bezmozgis neatly avoids that ponderous feeling that takes hold whenever an author has to dispense exposition.
Read more on New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/books/review/the-betrayers-by-david-bezmozgis.html