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Shake Off
Unavailable
Shake Off
Unavailable
Shake Off
Audiobook8 hours

Shake Off

Written by Mischa Hiller

Narrated by Fleet Cooper

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

An internationally acclaimed thriller of love, espionage and subterfuge, in which Middle East meets West with dangerous consequences.

Years of training have transformed Michel Khoury into a skilled intelligence operative. A refugee whose family was murdered by extremists, he has one mission: the peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict that upended his life.

An alluring enigma, he attracts the attention of Helen, a pretty English girl who lives in the adjacent apartment. As their relationship develops, Michel is unable to tell Helen about his past--or the collection of passports and unmarked bills he's concealed in the bathroom they share.

When Michel's secrets turn deadly, Helen and Michel find themselves pursued through the streets of London, Berlin and the Scottish countryside, on the run from the very people they thought they could trust.

A critically celebrated novel that "recalls the cool detachment and compelling eye for ordinary detail that characterized the early thrillers of Graham Greene" (Independent on Sunday), SHAKE OFF is that rare breed of riveting tale--of intrigue and suspense, love and betrayal--that announces a bold new voice for our increasingly global times.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 14, 2012
ISBN9781611134810
Unavailable
Shake Off
Author

Mischa Hiller

Mischa Hiller is a talented new voice. He was born in 1962 and grew up in Durham, London, Beirut and Dar El-Salaam. Mischa won the 2009 European Independent Film Festival script competition for his adaptation of Sabra Zoo. He lives in Cambridge. For more information please visit www.sabrazoo.com.

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Reviews for Shake Off

Rating: 3.4583311111111112 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

36 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I struggled to get into this novel, despite a longstanding affection for thrillers, mysteries and espionage yarns. This one, despite a very promising premise, plods, ambles and meanders. Perhaps the details of tradecraft and all the routine precautions of Michel's existence is more like what day-to-day life is like for a 'real' spy, but if you're more than 100 pages into the book (as I was) and still have no idea of what the point is and are wondering whether it will ever pick up, that's a sign of trouble. Yes, it eventually got a bit better, but never really delivered on the promise implied by the fact that the spy in question is working for the Palestinians, and trained by the Soviets, while working undercover in London and then finding himself on the run. That should have made for drama and a book that was at least somewhat hard to put down. Instead, I kept putting it down and forgetting to pick it up again. Yes, the writing is very good, which boosts it from a 2/2.5 star rating. The pacing, however, is a real problem -- and that's coming from a reader with a high tolerance for character-driven novels. 3.2 stars. I don't need formulaic poorly-written novels, but I also can't imagine what might prompt me to pick up this book for a re-read. Had it not been an Early Review book, probably wouldn't have finished it at all.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you train someone to be a spy, don't be surprised if you can't find him when he runs off.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a really entertaining spy thriller, set in the late 1980's. The story is told though Michel, a young Palestinian man who was orphaned in the 1982 attacks on the refugee camps in Beirut. He is taken in by a Lebanese family and educated. A mysterious "uncle" enters his life and he is sent to Cyprus and then Germany to finish his education. At the same time he is trained in the black arts of the professional spy. Michel thinks he is advancing the Palestinian cause and working for the PLO as he carries out missions for his handler couriering documents and laundering money. His world changes dramatically when his "uncle" who became his handler, is shot down in the street in Berlin. After that, Michel is chased throughout Europe by Israeli Mossad agents who are after a document that Michel obtained from a courier. It's an exciting chase that eventually leads to Scotland and a surprising revelation about Michel's handler. There's even a happy ending, which seemed unlikely. I highly recommend this book, especially to fans of spy thrillers. Also, it provides a rarely heard perspective on the ongoing Palestinian struggle with Israel. I received my copy of the through the Early Reviewer program.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was billed as a spy thriller and high action. I didn't think it had a lot of action, but was a well-written story about a young man who is a Palestinian. The books tells the story of his life, how he came to be an undercover agent. , and mainly focuses on his life as the undercover agent. I enjoyed the story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an interesting one. Its a spy novel told from the perspective of a Palestinian. Its disconcerting to see how the perceived other side lives.They have similar motivations and convictions that their actions are the right actions. The writing is clean and crisp and the pacing moves right along. This is one of the better spy novels I've read over the past couple years.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting story about a Palestinian youth recruited in the refuge camps of Lebanon to be an undercover agent after he grew up. It was a long term plan to develop a spy that would not be identified with the PLO. The story plot covers the basics of his young life and undercover training ending with the planning of peace meeting. The agent falls in love while undercover which complicates his position. There are several plot twists during the story that keeps you guessing as to what is really happening.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found this book to be a little difficult at the start but since I was reviewing it for the early reviewers I wanted to give it my best shot. After perservering, this book did have a flow to it and became more interesting as time when on. I would say this book did contain suspense but I wouldn't call it a thriller. If I could offer some constructive criticism, I would say it need more character/plot development with the espionage end of things. I kept wondering what is so top secret and why all this cloak and dagger stuff. If the reader felt they had some insider knowledge as to what is "really going on" over the main character, the book would be more gripping.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A blurb on the cover says "hypnotic". I would agree as I was nearly asleep halfway through the book. It starts out very well, then stagnates with the same action through much of the book. Michel Khoury is supposed to be a skilled intelligence operative. He reads, he waits, he hides, he switches passports. I was surprised when he developed a relationship with Helen and wondered where that would go. Or where anything would go. I am sorry to say that I think a good many copies of Shake Off will end up on remainder tables. I was disappointed. I sometimes wonder if the people who write the blurbs actually have read the book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although this book wasn't the exciting spy thriller I had expected, it has an odd appeal that keep me reading it to the end. The protaganist is a man raised to excel in the tradecraft of espionage, there is not much drama and action. The character develops as likable with a history of grief and anger about his family and their dealths in Lebanon by the hands of the Israelis. His subsequent recruitment as a Palistinian spy and the revelations that brings make up the plot.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not sure how I felt about this one. Not badly written [although I do wish the printers would make up their minds as to using single or double quotation marks -- and yes, I know this is an unedited copy, but still, a little consistency wouldn't hurt!] but not a lot actually happens for far too much of the book. Michel is a Lebanon-born Palestinian who serves as a courier for the PLO while he's living undercover as a student in London. He's supposedly trying to ensure a resolution to the Middle East conflict[s]. We see a lot of surveillance and counter-surveillance being performed, but there doesn't seem to be much reason for it ... until Michel meets his "handler" in Germany. (In the meantime, Michel has fallen for Helen, who lives in the house where his bedsit is. He can't tell her the truth about himself, although he knows far too much about HER sex life with one of her tutors.)Blah blah blah spycakes ... Michel's world is turned upside down by what appears to be a random act of violence; he runs away, with Helen, to Scotland [after much counter-surveillance -- yes, again -- on the way to the train station], where they find that they aren't any safer at the back of beyond than they were in London.I kept waiting for something to actually happen, rather than for Michel's paranoia/training to occupy his every waking moment [which I guess is what you do when you're a spy], but it took better than half the book for this to occur. The characters are interesting, but not enough for me to look for any more books by Mischa Hiller.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Shake Off is a 'spy thriller of the highest order', or so the blurbers tell you. In fact, the inside cover flap tells us the Michel Khoury is a skilled intelligence operative. He is skilled. He has been trained in all sorts of trade-craft, but somehow 'skilled intelligence operative' implies, to me at least, someone who understands his mission. Michel doesn't. He is more like a puppet, doing the job he is asked to do, no questions asked, simply because he believes in his handler.I found it hard to care about someone who asked so few questions his entire life. It seemed superficial to me. Learning of the ultimate betrayal of someone he trusts he feels embarrassment, sham, and like 'an empty shell'. Somehow, if the person most responsible for what my life and purpose had become turned out to be other than what I thought they were, I would feel more than that.Blurbers also compare Hiller to John le Carre, Ken Follet and Graham Green. In my opinion he does not come close to any of them, not in style or content. Neither, I think, does he compare to Joseph Kanon or Alan Furst. Just because they all write spy stories, doesn't mean they are comparable in skill. The writing style was not awful, but neither was it outstanding. While the plot wasn't really as convoluted as good spy thrillers usually are, more skillful writing could have made the book into more of a 'page turner'. Perhaps, telling the story in the 'first person' limited the depth Hiller could bring to the supporting cast. The character development was, to me, the weakest part. Background was given for the characters, but in a short perfunctory way, making them, and their actions, cardboard like. Certainly all of the characters could have been given greater depth.Perhaps, if the blurbers had not been so effusive with their praise I would not have had such high expectations and would not have been so disappointed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Shake Off" (SO) is the second of Mischa Hiller's two novels. SO is about a young Palestinian man who was recruited some years ago by Abu Leila, following the murder of Michel's parents in a refugee camp. Abu has seen to Michel's training, both in spycraft and languages for which Michel has a natural talent. His training and early assignments lead him to Berlin, Moscow, and other capitals. Finally, he settles in a London bedsit awaiting his next assignment. He quickly meets the girl next door, a doll, to whom he is strongly attracted. He has been trained to limit his romances to no more than a week, but Helen is something else. And then there are assignments, and slip-ups, and the competition. Following a surprise assassination, Michele is on the run, and there is a betrayal - whom can he trust? Who is it that he really works for? An excellent novel, one of the better spy novels I have read in the last five years. I look forward to more from Hiller.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was billed as a spy thriller and high action. I didn't think it had a lot of action, but was a well-written story about a young man who is a Palestinian. The books tells the story of his life, how he came to be an undercover agent. , and mainly focuses on his life as the undercover agent. I enjoyed the story.