Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Firefly
    Unavailable
    Firefly
    Unavailable
    Firefly
    Ebook440 pages6 hours

    Firefly

    By Henry Porter

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

  • Henry Porter is frequently described as the heir to John le Carré and is a massive bestseller in the UK. After a nearly decade-long hiatus from fiction-writing, Firefly is a triumphant return from a writer at the top of his game.





  • A bestselling author in the UK, Porter won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Brandenburg Gate, which was also named an Economist best book of the year, and was again a finalist for the Steel Dagger for The Bell Ringers and Empire State.







  • Grove Atlantic has previous published Porter’s The Bell Ringers and Brandenburg Gate on the Atlantic Monthly crime list and looks forward to welcoming Porter to The Mysterious Press.





  • Porter’s novels have a political timeliness and sophistication that speak to his long career as a political columnist/writer, previously for the Observer and now for the Hive, but they still manage to be high stakes and suspenseful in their plotting.



  • Firefly engages with the fight against the Islamic State, the Syrian Civil War, and, in particular, the refugee crisis in Europe. It captures the experience of an adolescent Syrian boy who washes ashore on Lesbos and makes his way towards Germany, where he hopes to be able to bring his family to safety, in a way that no journalistic report can, giving this book a uniquely humanizing and moving angle.
    • LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysterious Press
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9780802146755

    Read more from Henry Porter

    Related to Firefly

    Related ebooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Ferryman

      Oct 26, 2020

      At the end of the summer, when the high tide of tourists had gone out but autumn proper was still a few weeks away, the foot ferry still ran on the August timetable. It was always dead quiet when he made the first run over to Fowey from Polruan; even

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Visitors

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Visitors
      4 min read

    • Article

      Waving Not Drowning

      Aug 8, 2022

      Waving Not Drowning
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Hook Of The Sea

      Feb 3, 2022

      The Hook Of The Sea
      2 min read

    • Article

      Queen Of Salt

      Feb 6, 2020

      Queen Of Salt
      10 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Oct 28, 2022

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Oct 28, 2022

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Out of Water

      Oct 4, 2019

      Out of Water
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Wrong Shampoo

      Apr 10, 2022

      Brandy scoured the rows of bubble gum bright shampoo bottles. How much time had passed already? She looked to the front of the store but couldn’t see the checkout lines. She had only been to Jeff’s apartment once so far and didn’t remember what brand

      16 min read

    • Article

      Tales of Escape

      Sep 1, 2021

      Tales of Escape
      7 min read

    • Article

      Instructions For The Drowning

      Jun 1, 2021

      Instructions For The Drowning
      9 min read

    • Article

      Tali

      Dec 15, 2019

      Tali
      3 min read

    • Article

      Skein Is land

      Nov 6, 2019

      Skein Is land
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Touch Of Summer

      Sep 7, 2020

      Leila had found a place she could go. A sandy cove, a short cycle ride from her flat, where she could spread out her beach towel, put on her headphones and watch the sea lap up onto the shore. She wasn’t sure what kept this spot so quiet, when the ot

      5 min read

    • Article

      Temptation

      Dec 28, 2021

      Temptation
      6 min read

    • Article

      Better A Duffer Than Drowned

      Jan 22, 2020

      ON New Year’s Day, our friend Roger led a posse to the beach to expunge the last traces of hedonism and 2019-ishness. He likes to greet the New Year with an icy plunge, which brings him down from London and allows us to see him every year. Dr Bowdler

      2 min read

    • Article

      Crazy Times at Sea

      Feb 3, 2017

      A long time ago in an office far, far away, I received a typewritten manuscript that told a harrowing tale of a transatlantic voyage gone horribly wrong. The author and his girlfriend had answered a magazine advertisement for crew (yes, it was that l

      2 min read

    • Article

      Long Time Dead

      Dec 15, 2019

      Long Time Dead
      4 min read

    • Article

      Paul Heiney

      Aug 25, 2023

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    • Article

      Endurance

      Nov 17, 2020

      Endurance
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Paul Heiney

      Aug 25, 2023

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    • Article

      New Land

      Oct 13, 2017

      New Land
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Power of Words

      Apr 18, 2023

      The Power of Words
      2 min read

    Reviews for Firefly

    4/5

    25 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Thanks to Mysterious Press and Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy of this book. The views expressed are my own. Fired MI6 operative Paul Samson reluctantly agrees to help his former employers find a young Syrian refugee, Naji, who becomes known as Firefly. Naji has valuable intelligence about an ISIS warlord and is on the run from him and his henchmen, who want to kill him to prevent the spread of the information to the authorities.The story begins with Naji's arrival at Lesbos, a Greek island off the coast of Turkey. From there the story of Naji's journey northward is told in segments told from alternating points of view of Naji and Paul. Paul struggles to find Naji who needs to elude the IS warriors, while avoiding the authorities who would put him into custody as an unaccompanied minor. He needs to press on to Germany where he hopes to establish himself and set up a home for his family. It's an exciting and suspenseful story, with Naji having several dangerous adventures along the way. For example, at one point he and a companion are attacked by bears looking for food. It's an account of the struggles faced by refugees trying to reach the so-called Schengen area established by the European Union where they can re-settle. Nagi encounters many kind people along with the usual greedy ones who profit from the refugees' plight. The story also introduces Paul, a Lebanese refugee in his youth, who now that he has left MI6 works to find missing persons in the Mediterranean area. His main outside interest is betting on horse races in the UK; this activity is what led to his separation from MI6. It is a disappointment for me that this book doesn't really focus on Paul aside from his mission to locate Naji. However, it can serve as a platform for an interesting sequel.This is an intelligent thriller which provides background colour to the plight of refugees.
    • 5/5
      Feels so trueYou will like this book and you will learn from it. I have spent a lot of time recently working on refugee issues near the locations used in this story and this book feels so true. It reflects the experiences of my friends who have fled the destruction of their homes. For those of you who hear few real stories of refugees this book will be a revelation.It's a ripping good spy story too, with convincing characters, great scenery, and plausible action. I wish the author and publishers had used ISIL (closer to a correct translation) rather than ISIS and applaud their use of "Daesh", the regional name for ISIL, because not enough people know it.Terrible cover.I received a review copy of "Firefly" by Henry Porter (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com.
    • 5/5
      In "Firefly," Henry Porter describes the coming of age of Naji Touma, a thirteen-year-old boy from northern Syria who bears a heavy burden for one so young. He flees his native land after witnessing indescribable horrors, and then sets out on what he hopes will be a path to freedom. He is determined to bring his mother and sisters from a migrant camp in Turkey to Germany, where they hope to start a new life. Naji, who is brilliant, mature, and audacious, has a stratospheric IQ and impressive technical ability. Not only is he a self-taught computer expert who speaks several languages, but he is also an excellent strategist who has a greater understanding of human nature than many adults twice his age. He will need luck, stamina, and sophisticated survival skills, since a vicious band of terrorists are on his trail. The thugs pursuing Naji are desperate to get their hands on incriminating evidence that the boy has cleverly encrypted on his cell phone.

      During his trek to northern Europe, Naji meets various individuals, some of whom lend him a hand, while others try to exploit him. On the Greek island of Lesbos, a compassionate psychologist, Anastasia Christakos, gains Naji's trust. He reveals to her that he is running away from ruthless fiends who, if they succeed in apprehending him, will likely torture and execute him. The other central character is Luc Samson, a former member of Britain's MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service), who now works in the private sector. When one of his former colleagues asks for Samson's help, he reluctantly agrees to do what he can to locate Naji and protect him from harm.

      This is an involving and suspenseful work of fiction, in which Porter demonstrates the perils that displaced persons fleeing violence encounter when they try to cross borders into countries where they are often unwelcome. The author vilifies self-serving government officials who wish to extract Naji's secrets and, once he has told them everything he knows, think nothing of throwing him to the wolves. As Naji makes his way through treacherous terrain in all kinds of weather, he buys (and steals) food, camps out at night, and builds temporary shelters to keep himself warm and dry. Porter is a strong descriptive writer who paints vivid scenes that are humorous, frightening, dispiriting, and heartwarming. Aside from its clich̩d finale, "Firefly" is a rousing and poignant tale of grit, tenacity, and endurance in the face of overwhelming odds.
    • 5/5
      A young boy, seeking asylum for his family, is on the run, hoping to outwit terrorists determined to kill him before he can pass on the detailed terrorist plans he possesses. Told in alternating points of view between young Naji and former spy Peter Samson, the narrative, is graphic, gritty, and chilling as it recounts the stories of immigrants in peril, of those who seek to help them, and of depraved terrorists with dark and deadly agendas. With well-drawn, interesting characters, a strong sense of place, and an of-the-moment plot, this is a story that speaks to both the depravity and the nobleness of mankind.The ever-building tension of this pulse-pounding cat-and-mouse plot pulls readers in from the beginning. The harrowing, heart-rending tale is likely to be impossible to set aside before turning the final page. Highly recommended.I received a free copy of this eBook from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley #Firefly #NetGalley