Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg

Although this novel by Mishka Ben-David is subtitled "A Thriller," I did not find it to be so. Originally written in Hebrew, perhaps it is the translation process that has rendered this narrative so stilted, or it could be that the preponderance of the first 150 pages of the book is much more about the past and present emotional struggles of the Mossad operative protagonist, now stationed in St. Petersburg and involved in a forbidden affair with a Russian woman. We spend chapters learning about the years he and his first wife spent trying to conceive a child and when she gave up, so did I. the author's bona fides are impressive as he has advanced degrees in literature and served as a senior Mossad agent. Maybe if I had stayed with the book a bit longer, but life is too short and the world too full of good books.  However, don't just rely on my take, as the book received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, and there is an interview (pre-this book publication) on Reuters.