Satori

Nicholai Hel, a genius and mystic, returns as a formidable assassin in this thriller by Don Winslow. The story is set in fall 1951 during the Korean War. Twenty-six-year-old Hel has spent three years in solitary confinement by the Americans. He is a master of hoda korosu ("naked kill"), speaks seven languages fluently, and possesses an extraordinary "proximity sense"—an acute awareness of danger. The CIA offers Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for a mission: travel to Beijing and assassinate the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. The assignment appears to be a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. He must navigate chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while pursuing his ultimate goal of satori—the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.