Well, thanks, Mick! You'll be pleased to learn that I've been a very busy beaver for the last six years. There's a huge section that I added at the publishers' request that Graham hasn't seen, but I don't think it would change his opinion.

 

The Fire Agent by David Baerwald

 

A musician friend said David Baerwald had written a novel and wondered if I’d read it. I was a fan of Baerwald’s music so I said sure. I kind of owed him one anyway, as the title of a TV show I did – Boomtown – was taken from one of his albums. And besides, I was facing a 6-day travel quarantine in a hotel room overseas and thought an unpublished novel might provide something to occupy my mind. After the first hour, it occupied my every waking thought.

 

The Fire Agent is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read.

 

I find myself embarrassed by the trite phrases that come to mind – “towering achievement,” “gripping epic,” “revelatory history.” Those are all true, but they only scratch at the surface of Baerwald’s achievement. It’s a novel of inspiring humanity and heartbreaking fallibility. It’s a scorching secret history of the 20^th century that shines a spotlight on the echoes still reverberating to this day. It’s a spy novel, a war story, a love story. It is a brilliant piece of historical fiction that is hardly fictional at all. I can’t wait to read it again.

 

 

Graham Yost

Showrunner -- Justified

Executive Producer -- The Americans, Slow Horses

Writer – Speed, Band of Brothers (Part 5)