Satori

by Don Winslow Narrated by Holter Graham

Overview

It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or "naked kill," is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary "proximity sense"-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world's most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.

The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. It's almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publishers Weekly Audio

Winslow spins a sequel adventure yarn very nearly as entertaining as its predecessor, the 1979 thriller Shibumi. Set in the Far East in 1951, it features a 26-year-old version of Shibumi's popular protagonist, mystic and master assassin Nicolai Hel. Holter Graham give the prose a splendidly nuanced narration, using a calm, subtly lilting voice in charting the progress of the "more Asian than Western" hero, beginning with his release from a U.S. prison in Tokyo courtesy of the CIA, which put him there, through dramatic sequences of romance, violence, honor, and betrayal, and ending with a slam-bang confrontation with the villains in the underground tunnels of Vietnam. Along the way, Holter makes his Far Eastern accent more prominent, giving voice to the Asian characters, and switches to a touch of French for the love interest, a beautiful spy named Solange; Russian for several of the secondary villains; and a guttural, ugly American for the book's major protagonist. A Grand Central hardcover. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Nicholai Hel was already an accomplished assassin, a master of hoda korosu ("naked kill"), when introduced in Trevanian's 1979 Shibumi. Now Winslow (The Life and Death of Bobby Z.) dons Trevanian's mantle and cloaks Hel in a tangled series of adventures and misadventures in this exciting prequel. Hel's conditional ticket out of an American-run prison in 1951 Japan requires him to acquire a new face and identity and to carry out a probably suicidal mission to assassinate Soviet commissioner Yuri Voroshenin in China. In the guise of 26-year-old Michel Guibert, a French arms dealer, Hel enters a labyrinthine world of intrigue as various Chinese factions and foreign interests struggle for advantage. Winslow successfully fleshes out Hel's mixed heritage (aristocratic Russian mother, surrogate Japanese father and mentor), and eventually takes him to war-torn Vietnam, where Hel's expertise in applying Go strategy is as important to his survival as his physical skills. Winslow has crafted an impressive prelude to a highly esteemed classic thriller. (Mar.)

From the Publisher

"In his 1979 international best-seller, Shibumi, acclaimed author Trevanian introduced readers to handsome mystic and ingenious assassin Nicholai Hel. In this compelling prequel, Winslow, whose popular novels include Savages (2010) and The Dawn Patrol (2008), details Hel's life leading up to Trevanian's opus. Satori opens in the fall of 1951, in the throes of the Korean War. Twenty-six-year-old Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Now his captors are offering to release him-at a price. He must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. Though Hel is blond with striking green eyes, his worldview is more Eastern than Western. (He was raised by an aristocratic Russian mother in Shanghai and later lived in Japan, where he studied the ancient and notoriously challenging board game, Go.) Hel is a master of hoda korosu, "the naked kill," and blessed with an uncanny proximity sense, which makes him hyperaware of potential danger. He'll need every tool in his deadly dossier to earn freedom. Winslow renders breathless suspense and a cast of dark, devious characters from all corners of the globe. Recommend this one to fans of Baldacci and le Carré, as well as, of course, Trevanian."—Booklist (starred review)

"An intricately plotted, fast-paced thrill ride. Carrying on the legacy of Trevanian's SHIBUMI, Don Winslow skillfully brings the character of master assassin Nicholai Hel to life, creating a story so engrossing you won't be able to put it down. Winslow has truly done the Trevanian legacy proud."—Nelson DeMille

"A grand, sprawling, magnificent entertainment. Trevanian, in the skilled hands of Don Winslow, is alive and well, and dare I say, better than ever! For those of us who look back on Shibumi as a highlight of their reading lives, Satori does not for a moment disappoint. Those who have not read Shibumi are in for a treat. My immediate question upon turning the last page was "when is the next one coming out?" I cannot wait!"—Christopher Reich

"Satori is first-rate spy fiction, full of explosive action, exotic locales, and surprising romance, and Nicholai Hel is an assassin you'll cheer for: intent on vengeance for a terrible injustice, as comfortable with philosophy as he is familiar with the mechanics of stopping a man's heart, beset by enemies in a game whose true nature he can only divine by playing through to the end."—Barry Eisler

"A home run . . . carefully choreographed, bare-knuckled action . . . elegant writing, a mature, confident narrative and characters so real you can almost touch them on the page . . . Winslow has done the creator of Shibumi and the Nicholai Hel character proud."—David Baldacci

"Trevanian's Shibumi was one of the all-time great thrillers. Don Winslow is one of the best thriller writers we have. Put the two together and the result, no surprise, is sleek, smart, and deadly. SATORI is a must-read."—Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Paranoia and Vanished

Joseph Finder

"Trevanian's Shibumi was one of the all-time great thrillers. Don Winslow is one of the best thriller writers we have. Put the two together and the result, no surprise, is sleek, smart, and deadly. SATORI is a must-read."

David Baldacci

"A home run . . . carefully choreographed, bare-knuckled action . . . elegant writing, a mature, confident narrative and characters so real you can almost touch them on the page . . . Winslow has done the creator of Shibumi and the Nicholai Hel character proud."

Barry Eisler

"Satori is first-rate spy fiction, full of explosive action, exotic locales, and surprising romance, and Nicholai Hel is an assassin you'll cheer for: intent on vengeance for a terrible injustice, as comfortable with philosophy as he is familiar with the mechanics of stopping a man's heart, beset by enemies in a game whose true nature he can only divine by playing through to the end."

Christopher Reich

"A grand, sprawling, magnificent entertainment. Trevanian, in the skilled hands of Don Winslow, is alive and well, and dare I say, better than ever! For those of us who look back on Shibumi as a highlight of their reading lives, Satori does not for a moment disappoint. Those who have not read Shibumi are in for a treat. My immediate question upon turning the last page was "when is the next one coming out?" I cannot wait!"

Nelson DeMille

"An intricately plotted, fast-paced thrill ride. Carrying on the legacy of Trevanian's SHIBUMI, Don Winslow skillfully brings the character of master assassin Nicholai Hel to life, creating a story so engrossing you won't be able to put it down. Winslow has truly done the Trevanian legacy proud."

Booklist (starred review)

"In his 1979 international best-seller, Shibumi, acclaimed author Trevanian introduced readers to handsome mystic and ingenious assassin Nicholai Hel. In this compelling prequel, Winslow, whose popular novels include Savages (2010) and The Dawn Patrol (2008), details Hel's life leading up to Trevanian's opus. Satori opens in the fall of 1951, in the throes of the Korean War. Twenty-six-year-old Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Now his captors are offering to release him-at a price. He must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. Though Hel is blond with striking green eyes, his worldview is more Eastern than Western. (He was raised by an aristocratic Russian mother in Shanghai and later lived in Japan, where he studied the ancient and notoriously challenging board game, Go.) Hel is a master of hoda korosu, "the naked kill," and blessed with an uncanny proximity sense, which makes him hyperaware of potential danger. He'll need every tool in his deadly dossier to earn freedom. Winslow renders breathless suspense and a cast of dark, devious characters from all corners of the globe. Recommend this one to fans of Baldacci and le Carré, as well as, of course, Trevanian."

Booklist

In his 1979 international best-seller, Shibumi, acclaimed author Trevanian introduced readers to handsome mystic and ingenious assassin Nicholai Hel. In this compelling prequel, Winslow, whose popular novels include Savages (2010) and The Dawn Patrol (2008), details Hel's life leading up to Trevanian's opus. Satori opens in the fall of 1951, in the throes of the Korean War. Twenty-six-year-old Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Now his captors are offering to release him-at a price. He must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. Though Hel is blond with striking green eyes, his worldview is more Eastern than Western. (He was raised by an aristocratic Russian mother in Shanghai and later lived in Japan, where he studied the ancient and notoriously challenging board game, Go.) Hel is a master of hoda korosu, "the naked kill," and blessed with an uncanny proximity sense, which makes him hyperaware of potential danger. He'll need every tool in his deadly dossier to earn freedom. Winslow renders breathless suspense and a cast of dark, devious characters from all corners of the globe. Recommend this one to fans of Baldacci and le Carré, as well as, of course, Trevanian.

Library Journal

In his 1979 classic Shibumi, Trevanian introduced assassin Nicholai Hel, fluent in seven languages, a master of a form of martial arts called "naked kill," and in possession of "proximity sense" that enables him not only to know when someone approaches him but to sense how that person is feeling. That novel was fluff but fun, not so much for its action as for the over-the-top James Bond-like touches and Trevanian's mordant sense of humor. (The CIA is represented by the Deputy International Liaison Duty Officer, whose acronym is never spelled out.) Now Shamus Award winner Winslow (Savages) continues the story, fleshing out one incident from Hel's past that was mentioned in the first book but not elaborated: a CIA-sponsored assassination attempt against the Soviet commissioner in China. VERDICT This is a straightforward adventure book: there's a good deal of killing and sex in it but little of the humor of the original. A so-so thriller that peters out toward the end. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/10.]—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

The late Trevanian's 1979 thriller, SHIBUMI, was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Now comes Don Winslow, with a prequel, featuring SHIBUMI’s main character, Nicholia Hell. SATORI takes place in 1951, when Hell is released from prison in Japan. He had been jailed for killing his mentor, a Japanese war criminal, in an act of mercy. Hell is recruited to pose as a Frenchman to assassinate an Asian enemy of the free world. Hell is a master of the game Go and has unparalleled skill in the Japanese metaphysical martial arts. Narrator Holter Graham gives all the characters in this prequel special treatment. He emphasizes the mysticism in Winslow's work and brings listeners into the unfamiliar world of discipline and terror without missing a beat. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

In this homage to Trevanian's cult classicShibumi(1979), Winslow (Savages, 2010, etc.)fills in some of Trevanian's main character's back story.

In Shibumi, Nicholai Hel was already an accomplished assassin, called out of retirement to perform one more job. Winslow takes the reader back a few decades to the early 1950s to explain how Hel got into the assassination business in the first place. He picks up the thread after Hel's three-year stint in an American jail for the murder of his mentor in the chaos of post–World War II Japan. The Americans recognize his unique abilities—including his mastery of several languages and thehoda korosumartial art—and offer him a deal: He can have his freedom and a chance to even the score with those who have mistreated him in prison if he will travel to Beijing under the guise of a French arms dealer and assassinate a Soviet official. After a brief period of training in Western ways with the lovely Solange, for whom Hel develops deep romantic feelings, he travels to Mao's China to complete his assignment. Things get extremely complicated in the aftermath of the Beijing mission, and suddenly Hel doesn't know whom to trust. Still operating under his French arms-dealing alias, Hel escapes to Vietnam, where bitter tensions between rival factions are already beginning to erupt in violence. There, he must figure out which side he is on, as he navigates the treacherous political climate of pre-war Vietnam, while looking desperately for a way to reunite with Solange. Fans ofShibumi'sextravagent style will no doubt enjoy Winslow's contribution to the Hel story, and, just like Trevanian, Winslow imbues the James Bond–esque superspy atmosphere with a deep knowledge of Eastern cultures, including the ancient Japanese game of Go. And as in Shibumi, there is plenty of fun to be had for readers willing to suspend their credulity for a few hundred pages.

Perfect for Shibumi fans and anyone else who likes their espionage over the top.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173408006
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	03/07/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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