''Red Sparrow'' is a novel written by Jason Matthews, a former

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(CIA) operative, published by Scribner on June 4, 2013. The book describes the mundane aspects of the intelligence field, the techniques it employs, and Red Sparrow's unique ability to discern the nature of people by seeing their emotions in colors (through

synesthesia Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People with sy ...

Synopsis

Dominika Egorova, or "Red Sparrow", is a former Russian ballerina who is forced by her uncle (Colonel Egorov) to undergo espionage training for the Russian government at the Sparrow School, where people are trained to seduce their targets. Other key figures are Marble, a Russian

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

who provides intelligence to the CIA, and Nate Nash, a CIA internal-ops officer who recruits and handles intelligence assets for the agency. Each chapter in the book, as well as its two sequels, includes a reference to a specific prepared food, and ends with a recipe for it.

Reception

James Burridge and Michael Bradford, reviewing the book for the CIA's website, praised the book for its authentic depiction of surveillance and countersurveillance techniques, calling it "accurate ndrichly detailed", and positively comparing the book's plausibility to the work of

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...

. Burridge and Bradford also praised the characters as having been richly drawn, and for the avoidance of clichés, though they felt that the Russian supporting characters were not as nuanced as their American counterparts. The reviewers noted the distracting nature of the recipes at the end of each chapter, saying they could be easily skipped, and cautioned readers about the most explicit sex scenes they had ever encountered in the espionage genre. In 2014, the book won two literary awards, ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel and the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...

for Best First Novel by an American Author. ''

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'' says of Matthews's skill as a writer, "Sly descriptions abound, from the 'poached-egg eye' of a Russian assassin to the 'grimy catechisms' of those Sparrow School lessons. And despite a tendency toward point-of-view whiplash shifts, the author inhabits voices and perspectives with an impressionist's aplomb, whether the rich patter of a CIA agent recounting an

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adventure or those dry reports in the 'abbreviated style of the semiliterate Soviet'."

Sequels and film

Before the book was published, Matthews sold the movie rights for ''Red Sparrow'' for a seven-figure amount. He was also awarded a contract for a sequel to the book. The sequel named ''Palace of Treason'' was published in 2015. He also wrote a third volume named ''The Kremlin's Candidate'' in 2018. A

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

of ''Red Sparrow'' was released in 2018, starring

Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress and producer. She is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The List of high ...

and Joel Edgerton.

References

{{Authority control 2013 American novels American spy novels American mystery novels American thriller novels Novels about the Russian Mafia American novels adapted into films Spy novels adapted into films Edgar Award–winning works Charles Scribner's Sons books