An Expensive Education - Tapa dura

"McDonell's third novel . . . introduces a spy who could have easily walked off the pages of le Carre's better works . . . Teak is the most attractive fictional spy in quite some time . . . one hopes this isn't [his] only appearance." --Publishers Weekly "Part college novel and part spy thriller in the tradition of Green and le Carre, An Expensive Education encompasses global, national, and campus politics, showing the way the biggest agendas are sometimes set on the smallest stages. McDonell writes about hot topics with a cool head, and his riveting novel should fuel an emotional response from readers." --Booklist (starred review) "McDonell's dark, relentelessly readable latest swings back and forth between Harvard and Africa, and in both cases the education is indeed expensive . . . The 20-something author keeps his smart, ambitious, self-absorbed characters at arm's-length, doling out understanding and compassion to them while withholding real affection. A novel for the head more than the heart, but so very intelligent that for a certain kind of reader it will be catnip." --Kirkus (starred review) "McDonell continues his streak with a suspenseful, Graham Greene-inspired third effort . . . it's clear this young writer has only begun to show where his prodigious storytelling will take us." --People "An Expensive Education blends a terse story of international intrigue with a biting satire of Harvard . . . Smart and sexy and could be the beginning of a franchise more lucrative than literary fiction." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post "For decades, the intersection of the Ivy League and the CIA has made for good storytelling. But most of these are august tales of the Cold War, told from the wise, occasionally stuffy viewpoint of an old master. Now the 25-year-old McDonell -- who burst onto the literary scene at 17 with his novel Twelve -- has enlivened the genre with An Expensive Education . . . Tempered by some hilarious insider g

McDonell's third novel takes readers into Harvard through its dormitories and dining halls, into its elite finals clubs and lecture halls. "An Expensive Education" is a smart, relentless novel set at the troubled intersection of ivory academia and realpolitik.