Our American Friend

On love, intrigue, deception and manipulation

My February 2024 review of The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak is one of the most popular on my blog. Here’s how I summed it up:

I finished The Helsinki Affair and immediately put Pitoniak’s Our American Friend on hold (“fantastic fun and spectacular” per the blurbs on the back of the book). I want more of this talented and inventive author.

Well, I followed through and got the book from the library but didn’t read it at the time. I ended up listening to the audiobook this fall and can happily report that it’s another page-turning political spy thriller featuring a very interesting couple – the brash populist President Caine and his Russian wife, Lara, who used modeling as a vehicle to come to America. Not quite ‘ripped from the headlines’ but there are a few other parallels to Donald and Melania Trump. Remember the 2019 Trump meeting with Putin but no translator? In this story Lara conveniently translates for her husband during a meeting with his Russian counterpart.

Anna Pitoniak can weave a story. I was swept up in the dual tales of journalist Sofie, and Lara, a first lady with a most interesting past. The plot clips along as Pitoniak builds the story, keeping the pace balanced between the unfolding lines. Added audio bonus: the narrator, Lisa Flanagan, aced the voices and accents, and was a great match to the text.

Sofie just quit her job as a White House correspondent. She’s a proven journalist in the middle of a career crisis, disillusioned and unsure of what to do next. Out of the blue she’s asked to write the first lady’s biography. Lara chose her because Sofie once dared to ask a real question about her father’s KGB past – Lara didn’t answer but took note of the bravery.

Sofie and Lara grow close as Lara tells her about her family’s life in Russia and Paris – these are some of my favorite scenes in the novel. But after months of conversations things abruptly changed. Sofie’s too involved, knows too much, and begins to question her responsibility to telling the truth.

Our American Friend alternately takes place in Washington, Croatia, Russia and Paris, and features spycraft, young idealistic love, and the semi-tragic story of one Russian family. It feels authentic, with 3D characters and honest dialog. It was published in 2022, a year before The Helsinki Affair and is every bit as good.

I’m not sure why so many of us enjoy spies and intrigue but luckily there are authors like Anna Pitoniak who give us smart and refined novels to enjoy. I don’t see news of a new book on the horizon, but her 2017 work, The Futures (“The next great New York novel”) sounds like it will tide me over.