´Daniel stared at his instructor and thought how convincing deception could be´.
I´ve recently read some good and very good books written by former spies, and the insights of their everyday lives, especially in fiction, brings a note of genuine creativity. But not all spies are easily allowed to share their personal details, even if they are long retired. They remain valuable assets for their institutions, who are, partially at least, continue to keep control over their life.
Yariv Inbar, whose Operation Bethlehem, translated into English by Dalit Shmueli, was awarded Jewish Book Council´s Jane Weizman Award, is a former Mossad operative with a taste of spy thriller. Due to the sensitive nature of his missions, his books needs to be first approved by the censhorship´s office of the service, a practice common for other intelligence institutions such as CIA. According to the same rules, the author is using a pseudonym.
Given the above mentioned limitations, Operation Bethlehem may have less spy core compared to your usual espionage thriller, written by civilian authors. However, out of limitations comes the diamond, which is the main character of the story, Daniel, a French Jew who immigrated to Israel and joined the Mossad, with an explosive personality that may take him on slippery ways, risking careers and operations. Through the twists of the operation on enemy territory - Bethlehem - Daniel is initiating on his own, there are remains of a love story with another Mossad operative and also a curious archeological take, fully in sync with the role of archeology in the everyday life and identityy representations in Israel.
In the end, the story may be too sugary coated for my taste, but it´s worth reading it if you are curious to get a full immersion into a fragment of the everyday life of a spy. Once a spy, always a spy.
Rating: 3 stars
