The Marksman

Masquerading as a seaman on shore leave, Krill Karayev, a Soviet intelligence agent, has been dispatched from Moscow in pursuit of Ivan Inoseltsev, assigned the task of determining his suitability for the role of ""agent in exile.'' Ivan (like the author of this novel, a disaffected Soviet writer married to a Frenchwoman) is considering defection to Paris, but has run irresolutely aground on the Lithuanian Coast, where Krill finds him. The two become friends and confidants, drinking and womanizing mates, who experience together the sinister workings of the regime as it operates in this border country. Krill's mission fails, but through an exploration into the events shaping his life, he comes to terms with the multiple ambiguities of his identity and place in history. Dostoyevsky-ridden and Hemingway-haunted, the novel seems suspended between two cultures, two literatures. Yuryenen, who lives in Munich, is at his best a strong writer, and it will be interesting to see what else he produces, once he is able to sort out his own literary identity. ( June 25)