Isle of Joy

Midday on Christmas Eve on Fifth Avenue. Walter is walking in the heart of the day in the heart of the city in the heart of the world. The imperial metropolis on the best day of the year... Right from the very first pages, it is clear that Don Winslow’s Isle of Joy, published by Dutton Books, has at least two protagonists: Walter Withers, a former CIA agent and now a private investigator, and New York. A charming, self-confident man from an old Connecticut family, his father “in the service of the government”, with good manners and lots of money. And a city, at the height of its splendour in the late 1950s. Everything is on the move: ideas, loves, interests. There’s jazz in the air. The Village keeps late hours. Plots are hatched, of course. And here comes the third protagonist: Joe Keneally, a young Democratic senator who is eyeing the White House. And a beautiful, elegant, and unhappy wife, Madelaine. Her path meets Walter’s on that Christmas Eve, in a scintillating, vibrant, melancholy New York. While a dramatic trap is being laid... There is everything in Winslow’s extraordinarily well-written pages: style, humour, a skilful interweaving of fiction and political memories (Keneally’s unhappy stories recall those of the Kennedys), and a mix of mysterious atmospheres and high society gossip. As well as the cruelty of political struggles and the murky rivalry between the CIA and the FBI.   Ultima notte a Manhattan Don Winslow Einaudi, 2021