Spies of No Country

"Wondrous . . . Compelling . . . Piercing." --The New York Times Book Review

Award-winning writer Matti Friedman's tale of Israel's first spies has all the
tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise,
clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff--but it's all true.

The four spies were young, Jewish, and born in Arab countries. In 1948, at the
outbreak of war in Palestine, they went undercover in Beirut, spending two
years running sabotage operations and sending crucial intelligence back home.
It was dangerous work. Of the dozen members of their ragtag unit, five would
be caught and executed--but the remainder would emerge as the nucleus of the
Mossad, Israel's vaunted intelligence agency.

Journalist and award-winning author Matti Friedman's masterfully told and
meticulously researched tale of Israel's first spies reads like an espionage
novel--but it's all true. Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities
of these spies, but it's also about the complicated identity of Israel, a
country that presents itself as Western but in fact has more citizens with
Middle Eastern roots, just like the spies of this fascinating narrative.