American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

"Why do they hate us?" was the question on Americans' minds after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. Why indeed? Those of us who know our country's history don't need to ask. Others may not want to know, yet there are thousands of books, fiction and non, that tell the tale. "American Spy" by debut author Lauren Wilkinson is one of them. https://lauren-wilkinson.com/

Set in the late '80's and early '90's, Wilkinson's novel poses as a long biographical letter that former FBI intelligence officer Marie Mitchell is writing to her five-year-old twin boys. It is her attempt to explain why she must leave them with her mother in Martinique, a mother who also abandoned her when she was young, to persue a man who has the potential to harm her and her family.

The action toggles between New York City where Marie is first approached and hired by the feds, and the tiny African country of Burkina Faso that sits

landlocked in the western part of the continent bordering Ghana, Niger, and Mali. Marie is extremely frustrated by her work. It's the '80's after all and an ambitious woman is not considered an asset. Her career seems stalled, bogged down by paperwork, tied to a desk, when she craves action.

So when what seems like a chance meeting with a CIA operative who notices her potential - she's black, beautiful, and multi-lingual - opens up an opportunity to travel to Burkina and get close to the charismatic leader, Thomas Sankara, she briefly questions her country's motives and just as quickly puts misgivings aside for the chance to prove her value.

And here's where it gets interesting and complicated. You see, Sankara was actually the elected leader of Burkina Faso for 1983 to 1987. He was adored for his policies that turned his country's fortunes around, building schools, medical facilities, planting thousands of trees, and trying to nationalize industry and agriculture. So why, you might wonder, would the United States be interested in infiltrating an opposition political party and backing Sankara's friend and betrayer, Blaise Compaore? Why does the United States fear free and independent African nations?

Wilkinson tries to address these questions through Marie who falls under Sankara's spell and comes to question her own loyalties and her role in Sankara's downfall. This novel is being sold as an espionage novel but don't be disappointed if that's all you're looking for. Wilkinson also explores questions of parenthood and abandonment, about trust and friendship, and about geo-political intervention around the world. It is not so much a page-turner as it is a thoughtful meditation. 

This is a smart, convoluted novel in which the lines between good and bad veer often toward the gray. Wilkinson leaves many loose ends - whatever happened to her older sister Helene, supposedly killed in an automobile accident - that some may find upsetting. The good news is that I suspect she's leaving herself open to a sequel. At least, I hope so.