Half World - Softcover

O'Connor, Scott

3.42

163 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476716609 ISBN 13: 9781476716602

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015

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A "beautiful literary thriller" (Los Angeles Review of Books) inspired by the shocking history of a secret CIA mind-control program, Half World is "the perfect book for our present moment" (The Daily Beast).

In the 1950s the CIA began a decades-long clandestine operation, known as Project MKULTRA, in which unwitting American citizens were subjected to insidious drug and mind-control experiments. Haunted by these real-life events, acclaimed novelist Scott O'Connor has crafted a riveting novel that vividly imagines the devastating emotional legacy of such a program through the eyes of one of its more unexpected victims. CIA analyst Henry March, an unassuming "company man" forced to spearhead MKULTRA's San Francisco branch, finds himself bridging an untenable divide between his devotion to his wife and children and the brutality of his daily task. Torn between duty and conscience, Henry March chooses neither, instead disappearing without a trace. He takes with him the evidence of his sins and thus becomes the deepest MKULTRA mystery of all.

Twenty years later, as the country struggles under the weight of the Vietnam War, another troubled young agent will risk everything to find Henry, protect his family, and piece together the staggering aftermath of the crimes before it's too late.

Hailed as "one to watch" (Los Angeles Times) for his ability "to make something beautiful of unspeakable matters" (The New York Times), O'Connor has crafted a stunning, sensitive, and psychologically astute look at the depths to which a government will sink in service of its own power and the strength required of the human spirit to set itself free. Gorgeous and unflinching, Half World is both a page-turning drama and a transcendent celebration of our enduring capacity for hope.

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Review:

"O'Connor shows the beauty, the complex blend of dirty truth and high ideals that reveal the human in all of us with an intimacy, elegiac gravitas and deep respect. A strong voice."--Chris Abani "author of The Virgin of Flames and GraceLand "

"Scott O'Connor's Half World is like being granted clearance to classified files about a bizarre and fascinating moment in our nation's history--this is literary suspense of the highest order, and with every page I was intrigued a bit more, horrified a bit more, until I felt I, too, had been brainwashed and found it impossible to stop reading this beautifully written and utterly compelling novel. Now I must read it again. Now I must..."--Alan Heathcock "award-winning author of Volt "

"Half World is all in. A taut and suspenseful narrative. Well-wrought flawed characters. Prose that is pitch perfect. The truth is, Scott O'Connor is a beautiful, sage-like, and terrifying writer."--Andrew Krivak "National Book Award finalist and author of The Sojourn "

About the Author:

Scott O Connor is the author of the novella "Among Wolves"and the novel "Untouchable", which was hailed by "The New York Times "and for which he won a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers Award. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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