Excerpt from A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I felt he was hedging by categorizing my father's situation. Perhaps he couldn't go into detail about his case, which involved some thorny issues, such as the diplomatic relationship between the two countries and Gary's future usefulness or uselessness to China. I veered the conversation a bit, asking, "To the Chinese government, how big an agent was my dad?"

"Gary was in a class all his own, our highest-ranking spy."
That was a shock. "But—he was a general merely on paper, wasn't he?"
"Not at all. The intelligence he sent back . . . helped China make right decisions that were vital to our national security. Some of the information from Gary . . . went to Chairman Mao directly."

"So for that he earned his due?"

"Yes. His rank was higher than mine, although he had started later and lower than me." Chu paused as if to gather his strength. He resumed, "In intelligence circles, very few can reach the rank of general . . . purely by their abilities and contributions. Gary was an exception. He got promoted to general, well deserved. I couldn't catch up with him."

"You didn't become a general?"

"I'd been a colonel . . . for more than twenty years before I retired. I thought they might give me the big promotion, but they did not, because I didn't have enough pull and resources."

"What do you mean by 'resources'?"

"Basically money and wealth. You had to bribe the people in key positions. At any rate, Gary was different from the rest of us . . . and earned his promotions, granted directly from the top. To tell the truth, in the seventies, my colleagues would pronounce his name with reverence."

"You mean they regarded him as a hero?"

"Also a legend."

Again my father's gaunt face appeared in my mind's eye, but I suppressed it. I looked through my list of questions and asked again, "Uncle Bingwen, did you ever meet my father's first wife, Yufeng Liu?"

His face fell as if I had hit a wrong note. He said, "I met her once, in nineteen sixty . . . when I went down to the countryside to attend . . . your grandfather's funeral. We used to mail her money every month, but later we lost contact. She left their village in the early sixties. I have no idea where she is now . . . or if she's still alive."

"You have no information on her at all?"

"I have something." He stood and went over to a bookcase. He pulled open a drawer, took out a spiral notebook, and tore off a page. "Here's her old address in the countryside. Like I said, she relocated, so we stopped sending her Gary's salary."

I folded the paper and put it into my inner jacket pocket. "Why wouldn't she let you know her new address so that she could get paid?" I asked.

"Money became worthless during the three famine years. I guess that could be a reason. Or maybe she got married again . . . and wouldn't want to be tied to your dad legally anymore."

We went on to talk about my father's personal relationship with his handler. Chu insisted that the two of them had been bound together "like a pair of grasshoppers on one string." It was Gary's role as a top agent in the enemy's heart, the CIA, that helped Chu, Gary's sole handler, survive the political shifts and consolidate his position in intelligence circles in Beijing. For that he was still grateful to my father. In his view Gary was undoubtedly a hero, whose deeds all the Chinese should remember.

Chu seemed to be carried away by his remembrances, growing warmer and chattier as he went on. Evidently he had few opportunities to speak his mind like this. While I was wondering if it was time to take my leave, he said, "Do you know . . . you have some half siblings?"

Excerpted from A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin. Copyright © 2014 by Ha Jin. Excerpted by permission of Pantheon, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.