Silva is in the midst of con-
verting to Judaism, studying
with Rabbi Mindy Portnoy at
Temple Sinai in Washington.
His children are being raised
as Jews, and Silva says it is
important for the family to
be of the same faith.
But the novelist insists he is
not going
pin.-
ro
b thugh the con-
version process only for fami-
ly reasons. "I love the faith,
the religion, the tradition, the
intellectual qualities of
Reform Judaism," he says.
The English Assassin is
meant to be "fun and interest-
Michigan-born Daniel Silva: "Israeli
ing," Silva says, but it also has
intelligence is so interesting because the country
a message about forgiveness.
has been in danger for such a long time."
"The book could have been
called The Day of Atonement,"
orating with the Nazis and for trying
he says, "because each character is
to suppress the evidence of their
struggling
lina to atone."
activities. (Despite his harsh literary
For example, in The Kill Artist,
treatment of official Switzerland and
Allon loses his wife and son in a
its "shameful wartime behavior,"
bombing, and is haunted by the
Silva admits to loving that country.)
incident, blaming himself. At the
The author left CNN's
end of The English Assassin, he for-
Washington bureau, where he had
gives himself.
been a producer for five years, in
Despite all the killing in Silva's lat-
1997 to concentrate full time on his
est work — the characters are
novels. Silva says he has been influ-
extremely brutal and merciless — the enced by "the English tradition" in
real villain of the book is Switzerland, spy vs. spy literature, singling out
especially Swiss banks and public
John Le Carre, Graham Greene and
officials, who are indicted for collab-
Eric Ambler as role models. ❑

celebrity in all its absurd glory," she
said. "But there's nothing vicious here;
instead it's just plain fun,"
Samuels, a former director of New
York's Civil Liberties Union, is not the
person you'd expect to whip up a
frothy concoction like Filthy Rich for
her first published fiction.
A graduate of Bryn Mawr College
and Northwestern University Law
School, the 51-year-old Samuels has
worked for the New York Times for 18
years. Her forte is writing about weighty
topics, such as the Supreme Court,
campaign financing, women's reproduc-
tive rights and the death penalty.
Future editions of this novel will
need an index to explain the cultural
references Samuels sprinkles on nearly
every page. Filthy Rich is a book for
today — specifically, for the lazy sum-
mer days when no fictional coinci-
dence seems too far-fetched, no
humorous stereotype too unkind.
It's the literary equivalent of a pima
colada, sipped under a striped umbrel-
la — not very nourishing, but deli-
cious while it lasts.

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