Our American Friend

By Anna Pitoniak

What it’s about?

A globe-spanning thriller of love and betrayal about a mysterious first lady with an explosive secret.

Paris, 1974. Lara Orlov and her family arrive from Moscow at the height of the Cold War, thanks to her father’s position as a diplomat. The years pass, and Lara becomes more and more enamored with the City of Lights. As a teenager in Paris, she falls deeply in love with a fellow Russian expat: the passionate, intellectual Sasha, who opens her eyes to the ills of the Soviet Union.

Decades later and across the globe, journalist Sofie Morse is taking some much-needed time off after several chaotic years covering Washington politics. But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, her curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara—only that she was born in Soviet Russia and raised in Paris before marrying Henry Caine, the brash future president.

After decades of silence, Lara is finally ready to speak candidly about her past: about her father’s work for the KGB and about her ill-fated relationship with Sasha—which may be long in the past, but which could have explosive ramifications for the future. As Sofie begins to write Lara’s biography, she can’t help but wonder: Why is Lara revealing such sensitive information? And why now? Caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, both Lara and Sofie must ask themselves what really matters—and confront their own power to upend the global political order.

What I think:

This is absolutely riveting.

It took me a chapter or so to work out who who and what was going on, but the more you read, the more invested in the story you become. I would definitely say this is a slow burn of a thriller rather than a high-speed chase.

Trump-esque President Henry Caine wins a second term, and White Correspondent Sofie quits her job. Covering the president for four years has been enough for her. Then she receives a surprise call from the White House. First Lady, Lara, wants to meet her.

Lara Caine is a former Russian citizen whose father was part of the KGB. Beautiful and enigmatic, she rarely speaks to the press and uses soft, performative politics to project her views and send messages to her largely absent husband.

The novel switches between the present day aftermath of Sofie’s biography and revelations she has made, Lara and Sofie’s developing relationship, and Lara’s life story. Seamlessly woven together, the pieces of a complex puzzle are slowly slotted into place and secrets revealed.

Both Lara and Sofie are complex women, and the novel explores their friendship and issues between power and journalism, trust, and truth.

There are a lot of characters – the writer has created a whole world encompassing the White House, Sofie’s family and neighbours, and the Russian community of both the past and present.

This is written with a clear political agenda, in my opinion. Lara is a quiet but forceful heroine. Sofie seems to admire her from the outset, and despite her journalistic credibility, the trappings and power of the White House clearly have an impact on her feelings for her subject.

Some parts of this story didn’t quite work for me. There is a lot of jumping around in the narrative, and sometimes it drew me out of one part of the story a little quickly, making it harder to feel invested in some of the characters and on occasion the espionage and slow burn is a little slow.

But I did enjoy this and was driven to reach the conclusions.

About the author:

Anna Pitoniak is the author of Our American Friend, Necessary People, and The Futures. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked in book publishing, including as a senior editor at Random House. Anna grew up in Whistler, British Columbia. She graduated from Yale, and lives in New York City.

Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be on this thrilling blog tour, and to Bedford Square Publishers for my copy of the book.