BACKGROUND

In Brazil, in 1982, John, a young American intelligence officer on his first mission, offers protection to a girl whose father had been killed by a militia sponsored by his country. In parting gratitude, she offers herself to him, and he accepts. But in the complexity of the moment, she accuses him of raping her, an accusation she never repeats, but which will always haunt him.

Deva, the daughter resulting from this union, never knows her American father. But after abuse and the early death of her mother, she flees to America, where she fails to find a father, but does find that she is a brilliant student, a talented singer, and that heroin cures pain. That addiction is overcome after her partner dies from an overdose and she finds herself pregnant with her own daughter, Nadia. They make a new start in London.

After Brazil, John’s work takes him to Pakistan. At first, he is idealistically concerned with an earthquake disaster on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but this leads him to become a key figure in American support for the Mujahedin fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. In particular, he became the close friend of a local leader with homes on both sides of the border. The family is encouraged by America to take part in the heroin trade to finance the Mujahedin, and so becomes very rich.

By 2015 the three sons of that family had gone different ways. One stayed devout, and is now a leader of the Mujahedin’s successors, the Taliban, and so is America’s enemy; one runs the family’s now legitimate business empire from a London penthouse; the youngest, Harry, following an English education, lives his own life as a Londoner, with a small reputation at a poet.

John, now bitterly retired to New Hampshire, goes to Pakistan one last time in 2015 to visit his old friend, but his visit facilitates an American drone strike to kill the Taliban son. The rest of the family, except for Harry, is collateral damage. Pakistani intelligence takes advantage of Harry’s traumatic loss to radicalize him and encourage him take revenge. This includes killing John, who is believed to have guided the drone strike under the cover of friendship. Pakistan intelligence, like American intelligence, knows John has a daughter, Deva, but he does not know himself.

STORY

The novel opens in 2015, on the morning after Harry first meets Deva in the London nightclub where she sings. They have slept together, creating an intense confusion of feeling in Harry. In this mood, he at first does not notice the car following behind him. The British are about to detain him as a terrorist. Harry panics, makes a run for it, crashes his car and sustains serious brain damage that erases the past and prevents him making new memories. Under the cover of providing care, the British hire Deva to keep the disabled man company, with the hope that she will trigger the return of his memory and of his terrorist mission.

When Harry spent the night with Deva, he left behind, without explanation, a photo of John, her father. This picture now leads her to find John, and to bring him to London. Harry is convinced the man in the photo can unlock his memory. The move is encouraged by the Americans. But when they are all together something else happens. Harry has no memory, but in his perpetual present, he is gentle, loving and intuitive. His family’s London penthouse is a magical home. Deva, Harry, John, Deva’s daughter, Nadia, and their dog, become a tight little family.

It is John and Deva who turn out to be the ones cured of hurt by Harry, not the other way around. They are freed from the damage of guilt and abuse. John’s allegiance shifts to Harry and this beloved new family, away from his old intelligence bosses.

John and Deva finally understand they are father and daughter, and with Harry’s help are reconciled. They understand the perverse ways the world has brought them together. The mystery of Deva’s name is solved. She was named after the acronym on the side of John’s Jeep in Brazil – his cover, the Development of the Amazon project. Deva’s mother never knew his real name and this was her loving tribute. John and Deva’s only wish now is to protect Harry, whom they have come to love.

Harry’s memory starts to return. At first it is fragments from childhood, but with time these fragments form islands and then at a terrible rush they all join up. He remembers witnessing the death of his family in the drone strike. He remembers that he had been set on killing John, and for equality of revenge, also his daughter, Deva. In his new life, these are his only friends, and the people he loves and trusts. The shock to his fragile brain is overwhelming, and Harry loses consciousness. He wants to die, and rather than continue to live with this new knowledge, he wills himself towards it.

With Harry gone, the intelligence operation has no further purpose. John engineers for Deva and Nadia to return with him to America, and by the present day, they have made satisfying new lives together. Harry, the supposed terrorist, helped heal them and through his self-sacrifice, made this possible.

The themes underlying this story are: the elusive nature of memory; the enduring trickle-down consequences of the proxy wars of the Cold War era; and what it takes to heal.