Glasnost: The Superfluous Spy (Memoirs of Abandon #1)

Are you yearning to read an old school spy story full of mystery, unexpected twists and turns, and forbidden desire? Glasnost–The Superfluous Spy is just that — a profoundly haunting story full of passion and lust. A young woman named L. becomes entangled with a Cold War spy. As her world unravels, she must face her desire, her passion and the deepest abyss of all—the darkness of her own character.

This erotic yet literary novella takes place before the demise of the Iron Curtain in an unidentified German city. L. is a cultured schoolgirl. By chance, she meets an enigmatic Russian named Andrej and is entranced by his unapologetic directness and self-assuredness. She still holds a seething anger at her cheating ex-boyfriend and wants to reduce her naiveté about “the predatory sex” as she calls men.

So she invites Andrej to her apartment for a glass of whiskey and decides to play a type of salacious chess game with the Russian: “It was a strange day. I was no longer the same modest girl I was only days ago. Now I had to act with boldness, throw this new L. into the deep end of life.” 

But Andrej is not who he pretends to be. He is an undercover Soviet spy. Now the precarious teenager becomes a plaything for the German and Soviet secret services. If she is taking her manipulative game one step further, she will be drawn into a passionate, yet risky erotic affair with the grimly lascivious Russian man. 

This intense story is a a perilous coming-of-age tale of an intellectual, adventurous German girl undone by a trained Soviet spy. Ligeia de Chatille cleverly entwines the fates of her characters to depict the enthralling experiences of a naïve young woman who plunges herself headfirst into the adult world in search of power, passion and self-knowledge. One reader declared this Cold War spy novella “reminiscent of Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse.” It is perfect for lovers of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Brace yourself. The sparks flying between L. and Andrej become more and more unbearable and threaten to burn down both of their worlds. This sensual and provocative story will glue you on the edge of the minefield between pleasure and agony, reality and madness. It will linger with you long after you finish reading it.