“Cassandra’s Shadow: Stories” by M. Brosh

As I read Cassandra’s Shadow: Stories by M. Brosh, I had to keep checking to make sure I was reading fiction. After seeing about such recent and real-life reports like exploding pagers and drone factories secretly smuggled into Iran, Brosh’s stories seemed like they were thinly disguised versions of actual events. 

Fiction they are. But they are also based in fact, true events on how the Israeli secret service Mossad operates.

 

The 33 stories are set in a variety of locations – Jerusalem, Vienna, Paris, Syria, an airplane flight from Istanbul to Beijing, and more. Some 23 of the stories are actually a connected narrative, resembling a novella rather than a set of stories. But all of them describe situations that are entirely believable and likely happened. 

 

Operatives for the Organization, which sounds like a nickname for Mossad, undertake a variety of operations. But not all of them are directly involved. The main narrative, in fact, begins with an analyst noticing something odd – a train wreck in North Korea that resulted in a significant explosion and the deaths of people who had Syrian names. What is eventually discovered is that Syria has been using North Korean scientists to build a nuclear weapon on Syrian soil. The questions become what to do about it, and how to do it. And it’s a riveting account.

 

M. Brosh

The stories continue. An assassination in Damascus. An Iranian ship bringing arms to Hamas in Gaza. The targeting of a nuclear specialist at Tehran University. And more. Each story is told in almost understated way; this is, after all, what these men and women do on a daily basis for their work. The amount of planning and detail work is often staggering, but then I reminded myself, of how much planning and detail work must have gone into the exploding pagers and walkie-talkie devices across Lebanon in September of 2024.

 

The author includes an afterword about Europe and the fight against terrorism, describing how terrorists exploit the very foundations of European democracy.

 

Brosh lives on a kibbutz in central Israel. This is his first publication, and it is startling and sobering. Yes, you’re reading short stories, but you know it is fiction grounded in fact. And you realize what a dangerous place this world has become.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Cultural Contradictions of Conservatism – Aaron Renn at Compact Magazine.

 

27 Notes on Growing Old(er) – Ian Leslie at The Ruffian.

 

Murders for July – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Frances Wilson: T.S. Eliot is stealing my baked beans – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

The War on Cliché – Christopher Gage at Oxford Sour.