23 July, 2010
From Feodor Dostoevsky and Joseph Conrad to Doris Lessing, many have explored what makes nihilists or anarchists or terrorists. In The Trojan Spy, Gaither Stewart enters the same maze with Anatoly Nikitin, a Russian double agent and spymaster from the Cold War era who, in its aftermath, intends to kill his CIA controller responsible for the death of his lover. Thwarted in this, he undertakes a greater mission: to run down the organizers of present-day terrorism. Like the Trojan Horse of mythology, Nikitin has been welcomed without suspicion into any community he was assigned to assimilate, yet within him lurks an army of aliases capable of countless betrayals. As a Cold War spy he was maneuvered by the best of spymasters of East and West but now, after a lifetime spent switching roles, he maneuvers his own ring in an attempt to uncover the deadliest of spy rings, the organizers of terrorism.
His quest sweeps the globe from Moscow, Berlin, St. Moritz, Paris, Munich and Tehran, to the seemingly placid Perugia, which seethes with spies, and finally to Assisi. The Trojan Spy shows that spies comprise an explosive mix of political and religious cynicism, lingering regret, illusory ideals, love of power and a childish taste for thrills. Karl Heinz, an aspiring journalist too young to understand the world of ideology and espionage in which Nikitin matured, is witness to this chilling and cautionary tale that shows that the brutality and menace of terrorism has only increased since spies were supposed to have disappeared with the end of the Cold War, and that much of the world is hostage to a strategy of tension in which terrorism provides the pretext for creations like Homeland Security in the USA.
About the Author
Gaither Stewart is a native of Asheville, North Carolina but has lived a nomadic life as a journalist and writer in Germany, Italy, France, Iran, The Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina and Russia. He is the author of novels and short stories, essays and journalism. His works include the novel Asheville, and the short story collections Once In Berlin, To Be A Stranger and Icy Current, Convulsive Course. As Senior Editor and European Correspondent of Cyrano’s Journal Online, his dispatches are published on many web venues. He lives with his wife, Milena, in north Rome.
The New Dark Age 
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