Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak

 Our American Friend 

by Anna Pitoniak

A mysterious First Lady. The intrepid journalist writing her biography. 

And the secret that could destroy them both

Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak was published on 29th June 2023 by No Exit Press. My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. 

Synopsis

Tired of covering the grating dysfunction of Washington and the increasingly outrageous antics of President Henry Caine, White House correspondent Sofie Morse quits her job and plans to leave politics behind. But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, inviting her to come in for a private meeting with Lara, Sofie's curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara - only that she was born in Soviet Russia, raised in Paris, and worked as a model before moving to America and marrying the notoriously brash future president. When Lara asks Sofie to write her official biography, and to finally fill in the gaps of her history, Sofie's curiosity gets the better of her. She begins to spend more and more time in the White House, slowly developing a bond with Lara. As Lara's story unfolds, Sofie can't help but wonder why Lara is rehashing such sensitive information. Why tell Sofie? And why now? Suddenly Sofie is in the middle of a game of cat and mouse that could have explosive ramifications. 

My Review

What an incredible story. What more is there to say other than I was hooked right from the start and drawn into the narrative as the life of the First Lady was revealed slowly, stage by stage, as she recounted her past to Sofie. THe intrigue is, at times, all consuming as you read page after page , drawn deeper and deeper into Lara's past and what life for her had involved in Moscow and Paris during the Cold War.

Anna has cleverly taken her story and alluded to treason and espionage at the highest level between two of the worlds super powers. As it progresses you find yourself looking at recent events in American political history and wondering about the "back" stories that might be found there!!!!!

This really is a 5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 story with a difference, it is incredibly easy to read, thought provoking, insightful and captivating, along with being very hard to put down until you have read the very last page.

Anna Pitoniak is one of our modern day writers to take note of and I, for one, will be reading other works she has written in the very near future.

About the Author

Anna Pitoniak is the author of The Futures, Necessary People, and Our American Friend. She graduated from Yale, where she majored in English and was an editor at the Yale Daily News. She worked for many years in book publishing, most recently as a Senior Editor at Random House. Anna grew up in Whistler, British Columbia, and now lives in New York City.

Further praise for Our American Friend

'Pitoniak braids timelines to create a portrait of a woman torn between two countries, two belief systems, two selves... Elegant and well-paced... Like Emily in Paris meets Scandal - fantastic fun' - New York Times 

'Spectacular - a global thriller with pace, tension and ever-higher stakes, born of an intimate and unlikely friendship between two very different women... The story succeeds on every level' - Lee Child

 'A gripping tale of the Cold War and its legacy' - People Magazine 

'Fast-paced, smart, twisty… Our American Friend is both an engaging feminist thriller and a meditation on the ways history often surprises even the people who make it' - Shelf Awareness

 'Wholly original … [The book] follows journalist Sofie Morse as she begins work on what she's told is the first lady's authorized biography but, like the dolls from Mother Russia herself, the assignment reveals itself to be nothing like what it seemed' - Entertainment Weekly

For further reviews read what others on the Book Tour have said;