{"product_id":"9780812993448","title":"The Unwitting: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn CIA parlance, those who knew were “witting.” Everyone else was among the “unwitting.”   \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e On a bright November day in 1963, President Kennedy is shot. That same day, Nell Benjamin receives a phone call with news about her husband, the influential young editor of a literary magazine. As the nation mourns its public loss, Nell has her private grief to reckon with, as well as a revelation about Charlie that turns her understanding of her marriage on its head, along with the world she thought she knew.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e With the Cold War looming ominously over the lives of American citizens in a battle of the Free World against the Communist powers, the blurry lines between what is true, what is good, and what is right tangle with issues of loyalty and love. As the truths Nell discovers about her beloved husband upend the narrative of her life, she must question her own allegiance: to her career as a journalist, to her country, but most of all to the people she loves.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Set in the literary Manhattan of the 1950s, at a journal much like the \u003ci\u003eParis Review, The Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e evokes a bygone era of burgeoning sexual awareness and intrigue and an exuberance of ideas that had the power to change the world. Resonant, illuminating, and utterly absorbing, \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e is about the lies we tell, the secrets we keep, and the power of love in the face of both.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Much of the fun comes from the literary cameos (think: Mary McCarthy, Richard Wright and Robert Lowell), but it’s [Ellen Feldman’s] haunting portrait of a marriage that make this Cold War novel so resonant for readers of any time period, including our own.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The first notable thing about this book is the narrator’s voice: it is snappish, confident, argumentative, literate. I fell for it from the beginning. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e is vibrant, sassy, informative, a page-turner, absorbing, and swift. I am a woman, so maybe it is a women’s book, but I seriously doubt it, and hope that male readers will give it a shot. Surely they too will appreciate the research that went into it. Surely they too will be fascinated by its bold and thorough review of the American twentieth century.”\u003cb\u003e—Kelly Cherry, \u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Compelling enough to take its place with the best of crime fiction, Feldman’s language is loving, bright and sharp while her storytelling abilities are unquestionable. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e cuts us into an interesting time, then ramps things up. . . . Feldman is clearly a writer who is going places, [and] \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e brings that home: it’s a terrific book.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJanuary Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A story of love and intrigue during the Cold War, \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e plumbs not only the secrets of spies, but those of the human heart. Moving, witty, and thoroughly intelligent, it is an absorbing and deeply satisfying read.”\u003cb\u003e—Kevin Baker, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Big Crowd\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Unforgettable . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e compelled me from the first page and through every unexpected twist and turn. This look into the dark places in human nature cries out to be read, re-ead, and discussed.”\u003cb\u003e—Lynn Cullen, author of the national bestseller \u003ci\u003eMrs. Poe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Through the lens of a passionate, complex marriage, Ellen Feldman brings the Cold War back to life. \u003ci\u003eThe Unwitting\u003c\/i\u003e is a wise and irresistible portrait of fascinating people in a tumultuous time.”\u003cb\u003e—Roger Straus III, former managing director, Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47007868649712,"sku":"9780812993448","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812993448_p0.jpg?v=1763742852","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812993448","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}