THE CORDILLERA

A young French spy comes of age during his adventures.

Jacques Laurent is not quite 17 years old in the opening pages of this novel, hiking some Argentine mountains with his uncle Ignacio, a local rancher. When they reach the summit and return to Ignacio’s ranch, Jacques meets Irina, the daughter of a friend of their extended Russian family, who says she is passing through the area on vacation. It turns out Irina is an assassin on the run after killing a Russian expatriate. Jacques and his uncle help her escape, and the teen falls in love along the way. Jacques returns to France to start college, and shortly before graduation, he is recruited by a French spy agency. He balances graduate studies with undercover assignments and frequent affairs, with Irina always remaining in his mind. They reconnect several years later and make plans to leave their respective agencies and move to Argentina, where Jacques will take over his uncle’s ranches. Irina disappears, and when Jacques learns that she was captured on a mission, he turns one of his own assignments into a rescue attempt. Rousset’s novel combines standard elements of the spy thriller—battle scenes, conspiracies, a hero who is irresistible to women of all nationalities—with the soulful introspection of a man most at home wandering the mountains, and it generally does so to good effect. There is a distinct element of wish fulfillment, as Jacques falls into bed with nearly every woman who crosses his path (“Fatima listened to me in silence for a few moments before placing her hands on my face and kissing me lightly on the lips”), and the narrative does drag at times. There is some attempt to grapple with the ethics of espionage, and Jacques struggles the first time he kills a person. But for the most part, right and wrong are clearly delineated, and the engrossing book is more interested in exploring the experiences of an individual than broader geopolitical questions.

A thoughtful, engaging espionage tale that propels a young man into adulthood.