Before Julia Child was the cooking icon who brought an
appreciation for French cuisine to American shores, she was entrenched in the
world of espionage. She began her career as a copywriter at a furniture store
and, wanting to help with the war effort, found her way into the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). She went from a research assistant to having top security clearance as Chief
of the OSS Registry.
Regular citizens drawn into counterintelligence and
other cloak-and-dagger activities can be the stuff of reality (think Mata Hari)
and also make for thrilling novels with life-and-death consequences and
characters who are often flawed, are morally ambiguous, and are dealing with
demons that comprise their already complicated lives. While most stories focus
on men, a growing genre puts the female protagonist front and center of the
intrigue.
In The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott, two secretaries
from the CIA’s typing pool become instrumental in smuggling copies of Boris
Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago back into Russia during the Cold War. As it happened,
Doctor Zhivago was banned in Russia for its unflattering portrayal of life in
the Soviet Union. Set in more recent times and dealing with online privacy
concerns, in Kathy Wang’s Imposter Syndrome, a lowly tech worker at a
Facebook-like company discovers untoward activity on the company’s servers that
trace back to the CEO, who may be an enemy sleeper agent. And then there is Who
is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht. A witty and astute young woman working nights
at a radio station finds herself infiltrating a group of revolutionaries in
Argentina and must use every skill to come out alive when caught in the middle
of a coup.
War can complicate the best of espionage plans or
help them come to fruition. In my novel, Hope You Are Satisfied, a twenty-five-year-old
guest worker is employed by a local tour operator in 1990s Dubai, UAE. When Iraq
invaded Kuwait and coalition forces began amassing in the region, Dubai became
a major base of operations, and the world prepared for what may be the next
world war. Unlike Dubai today, the city then was a small trading port and was a
popular destination for tourists from the UK and Western Europe. As the threat
of chemical and biological attacks throws her future into question, she becomes
the lynchpin to the plans of an international arms dealer. Caught between her
bosses and the intelligence agencies operating in the growing theater of war,
her daring undertaking will impact her future and affect the direction of the
impending Gulf War, thus having consequences for the world at large. Like the
furtive figures who fight in the shadows for their beliefs and lives, no one
will ever know what she risked and how wrong it could have gone.
Women, it turns out, are uniquely suited to the
covert operations that require intelligence, quick thinking, dexterity, and
courage. They make friends easily and are good listeners. Strong analytical
abilities and an intuitiveness about people are assets. A lifetime of
navigating a world where they could be attacked in their homes, at work, or
going for a jog teaches them to be hypervigilant. They know where the exits are,
have a Plan B for most situations, and are practiced at making quick getaways.
It is almost second nature at this point. They can fade into the background and
are adept at hiding different facets of themselves.
My protagonist in Hope You Are Satisfied is forced
to confront the absurdities and challenges that come from the world teetering
on the cusp of a new global conflict while doing her day job. Like her, the women
in these espionage narratives must make choices because of geo-political events
and the manipulations of sometimes unknown, albeit powerful, decision-makers. Their
stories, relating to being a woman in a particular kind of world, often
contemplate ramifications of power, privilege, and gender, all while wrestling
with complex moral calculations, family relationships, and unwanted emotions.
Julia Child had the right idea. After a period of vital,
dangerous service for self and country, the simple pleasures of a glass of fine
wine and a hearty boeuf bourguignon are well deserved.
Hope you are Satisfied by Tania Malik (Published by
Verve Books) Out Now
Hope You Are Satisfied welcomes you to Dubai as you've never seen it
before...
1990. Twenty-five-year-old Riya works for Discover Arabia, a tour guide company in the far-flung outpost of Dubai. In the months leading up to the first Gulf War, the city's iconic skyline and global reputation are just a gleam in developers' eyes. For Riya, it's a desert purgatory that spreads out between her family back home in India and her unknown future. As political tensions run high, international arms dealers, American soldiers, CIA consultants, corrupt bosses and wayward vacationers all compete for Discover Arabia's attention. Meanwhile, Riya and her colleagues begin to plan their exit strategies. Will a favour from Dubai's most notorious fixer offer Riya the chance to fulfil her financial obligations and escape to the United States?
More
information about the author can be found on her website. You can also find her on
Instagram and ‘X’ @taniamalik and on Facebook.
Photograph©
Paul Stonehouse
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