Small Treasons - by Mark Powell (Paperback)

About the Book

"Tess Maynard's life is coming apart. At home with her three young children in her husband's small north Georgia hometown, she is steadily becoming obsessed with an American journalist captured in Syria and being held by ISIS, sensing an eerie resonance between his captivity and her own. Meanwhile, the life of her husband is also beginning to unravel. John Maynard is a psychologist working as a college counselor. But in a former life-a life that becomes his obsession-he worked as a government contractor at a CIA black site in Eastern Europe where suspected terrorists, and one innocent civilian, were tortured. Now the Justice Department is threatening an investigation, but not if John will cooperate in an ongoing operation: a professor at the college where he works is rumored to be involved with an organization masking a militant group. As John and Tess work to salvage their life together a young man in Atlanta is slowly becoming radicalized-groomed by the professor John is meant to report on-to fight not in Syria but at home in the US. Eventually all three lives intersect, with devastating consequences"--

Book Synopsis

With writing that is both devastating and tender, Mark Powell (The Sheltering) brings his acclaimed eye to an American marriage on the verge of rupture, spinning an all-too-current tale of the world we live in and the world we fear--and how we may not be able to tell the two apart--perfect for fans of Adam Johnson's Fortune Smiles and Denis Johnson's The Laughing Monsters.Tess Maynard is coming apart. At home with her three young children in her husband's Georgia hometown, people keep asking if she's depressed, if she and John are okay. Secretly, she's becoming obsessed with the war on terror--an ISIS beheading video in particular. Something about the victim's captivity on the computer screen resonates with her. Something inside of her demands endless prayers for a world gone mad. The carefully constructed life of her husband is likewise beginning to unravel. Now a college counselor, John's former life bears persistently into the present. Once a contractor at a CIA black site that interrogated suspected terrorists--and one innocent civilian--he is given a choice by the Justice Department: either help with a problem in the homeland, or they investigate. Forced by an old colleague to spy on a new one, John's experiences abroad come home to roost in Georgia. For his wife, for his family, he goes along with the game. But just as he and Tess work to salvage their life together, the world comes between them in the form of a young man slowly being radicalized by the professor John is reporting on. In a moment Tess imagined and never wanted to see, the intersection of their three lives is as devastating as the bomber's explosion of hate and metal, and as inevitable as the battle between powers great and personal.

Review Quotes

"You find yourself wanting to believe in Powell's characters because he turns them into townspeople of your unconscious by the power of his art."