Espionage, Love, and Literary Secrets: Lea Carpenter on Ilium

In this episode I talk to New York author Lea Carpenter about her third novel,  Ilium. Like John Le Carré and Graham Greene, Lea, a lecturer at Columbia Law School,  is a master of the literary spy novel. Ilium takes place from London to Mallorca to Cap Ferret in southwestern France. Its style is spare, keeping the reader always guessing. Ilium is also a love story about a young British woman who doesn’t really know what she wants out of life, maybe a little excitement and adventure. And then in the classic case of be careful what you wish for, she falls in love with a dashing, older American spy and becomes the perfect asset in a long overdue covert special-op. In this episode we discuss Lea’s inspirations for Ilium. They range from a series of paintings to a real spy case to The Iliad. Lea also talks about her late father who was in the military and the questions she wished she’d asked him. I hope you enjoy the show.