Lea Carpenter

A man sees a young woman and instantly knows that she is perfect for the job.
Later, as this young woman is at a party in a garden that she loves, she meets the owner, Marcus, and they fall in love and marry. He asks her for a favor. The favor is to visit Cap Ferret and "listen". The owner of the estate, Edouard, is a _target of the CIA. His son, Felix, becomes a dear friend to the woman. She is used to pass info to the CIA. This operation is revenge for the killing of one of their own.
This is a tragic look at war, but also has a thread of love and hope in it. I really enjoyed this short, beautiful novel.… (more)

In a world full of overly long books, Lea Carpenter’s Ilium dares to use sparse language to tell a sprawling tale of love, war, and espionage. The young, unnamed female narrator finds herself at the center of a nearly decade-long operation after she falls in love with a mysterious older man. Carpenter manages to build complicated characters, and she masterfully doles out information with pinpoint accuracy as they head to the inevitable conclusion. Ilium is not an action thriller, but a slow, thoughtful book about the inside of operations and the people involved.… (more)