One of the two interwoven plotlines in A Map of Betrayal, the seventh novel from National Book Award winner Ha Jin (Waiting; War Trash), is narrator Lilian's reconstruction of the life of her father, Gary Shang, the most important Chinese spy ever caught in North America. In the other plotline, Lilian's Caucasian mother has died, freeing Lilian, a 50-ish professor, to contact her father's Chinese mistress, who gives her his six-volume diary. Lilian discovers that her father had a previous wife whom he was forced to leave behind.
A mole for three decades in the CIA, highly valued by Chairman Mao, Gary-- forced to move to the U.S. at age 31 and remarry--is revealed to have been homesick during his entire "protracted mission." Convinced that the government is looking after his Chinese wife, he grows to love the America he needs to betray and tries to benefit both countries--until he makes one mistake, out of love for his American wife.
When Lilian is granted a Fulbright lectureship in Beijing in 2010, she seizes the opportunity to contact his first wife and children, in spite of Chinese government prohibitions. Though she's too late to find them alive, she does find her half-niece, and then discovers her charming, handsome half-nephew, who runs a small business outside Boston and begins to entangle Lilian's husband in unusual microchip purchases, acting more and more like his grandfather the spy.
Written a cool, factual, unadorned style, A Map of Betrayal is a quietly humane, painstakingly detailed portrait of an idealistic man who tries to set himself morally apart. Ever present in this dense, compelling tale are provocative questions about the nature of patriotism: When do you betray your country? When does your country betray you? --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle, Wash.