I Am Pilgrim

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Background

Historical Context: Modern Afghanistan and the Aftermath of the Soviet-Afghan War

In the 19th century, modern Afghanistan was frequently invaded and served as a point of European and Eurasian conflict given its geographic location near the imperial ambitions of tsarist Russia in Central Asia and British rule of what is now India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. After the Russian Revolution, the Afghan government recognized the Bolshevik regime and remained loosely allied with the USSR. This relationship deteriorated and escalated into longstanding conflict in 1979. That year, a radical Marxist regime conducted a successful coup in Kabul and launched unpopular economic and social reforms. The regime had little popular support, and by late December, Soviet troops entered the country to defend it. This was based on the core doctrine of Soviet foreign policy named for then-leader Leonid Brezhnev: that socialist regimes would be defended with arms and economic support. The USSR’s primary political rival, the United States, backed the diverse coalition of resistance forces, most of them Muslims from a variety of ethnic groups and some foreign countries. The war itself produced a bloody stalemate, while Soviet troops withdrew during 1988-89. The war was unpopular within the USSR and is frequently regarded as one of the contributing factors to its 1991 collapse.

In the years following the Soviet withdrawal, the country remained politically unstable and economically devastated. In 1994, a conservative Islamic government known as the Taliban began to establish rule over Afghanistan—bringing multiple ethnic groups under a single government in Kabul was a longstanding historical challenge for most Afghan rulers. The US invasion of 2001 toppled the Taliban, but its rule was largely reestablished during the 2021 withdrawal of American forces.

Historical Context: September 11, 2001, and the Global War on Terror

The terrorist attacks of September 11 were carried out by 19 hijackers of varying nationalities, members of an Islamic fundamentalist group known as al-Qaeda. Its leader, a wealthy Saudi named Osama bin Laden, had also financed mujahideen activities during the Soviet-Afghan War. The hijacking plan was largely organized by al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a close associate of bin Laden. The concept of the “far enemy”—the US as backer of regimes hostile to Islam—was also a feature of their plans and motivations.

The men involved flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while another flight crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers learned it was likely headed for Washington, subduing the hijackers before the crash. The attacks remain the largest terrorist event on American soil, and 2,750 people died in New York City alone. Some 400 of them were police and firefighters who attempted to rescue the World Trade Center’s occupants; Hayes depicts this in his account of Ben Bradley’s work on that day.

The attacks marked a fundamental shift in the foreign policy of George W. Bush’s administration, as Bush announced that there would be no tolerance for regimes that had supported or sheltered the perpetrators of the attacks. Because of al-Qaeda’s close relationship to the Afghan regime, an invasion of that country soon followed. Bush also created a new cabinet department for antiterrorism efforts, in part as a response to the intelligence failures that made the attack a surprise, and the Middle East became an increasing area of focus in foreign policy. It is this that Murdoch describes as the motive for his retirement. His return to service to thwart another terrorist plot positions Hayes’s thriller as openly engaged with the realities of terrorism in a globalized world of multilateral foreign policy, in contrast to the political and spy thrillers that had primarily focused on the bilateral nature of the Cold War.

Genre Context: The Espionage Thriller and Suggestions for Further Reading

Because Hayes is acutely aware of the conventions of the espionage genre, some attention to major works within it adds to an understanding of his text. Espionage novels frequently feature a lone agent on a mission few others know about. Hayes often has Murdoch use the phrase “in the cold” or “in from the cold,” an allusion to the 1963 John le Carré novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

That work depicts a cynical spy, Alec Leamas, who soon realizes he is working to preserve an amoral man’s life in the name of intelligence-gathering. Leamas, like Murdoch, hopes to be free of a life of espionage, only to be sent out as himself, with no cover and little hope of success. Le Carré’s novels frequently depict weary, cynical operatives who may hold little to no moral high ground compared to the Communists they oppose, an approach similar to Hayes’s use of Zakaria al-Nassouri as Murdoch’s foil. Another notable le Carré work,1974’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, depicts efforts to isolate a mole within British intelligence—the kind of work Murdoch’s specialized division engages in. His decision to kill his boss, a close friend, echoes the events of that novel, as former spy Jim Prideaux executes the traitor Bill Haydon before he can be exchanged for Soviet prisoners and escape to Moscow.

Hayes is also clearly indebted to two of Frederick Forsyth’s most popular political thrillers, The Day of the Jackal, published in 1973, and The Odessa File, written in 1972. The former depicts an assassination attempt against French president Charles de Gaulle, which nearly succeeds until it is thwarted by an international manhunt and the cleverness and dedication of one detective, Claude Lebel. The assassin he captures and kills is never formally identified, just as Murdoch remains unaware of Ingrid’s real identity. The Odessa File depicts a journalist’s attempt to track and infiltrate an organization that aids escaped Nazi officials. Though all of these novels deal with Cold War Europe, Hayes clearly takes inspiration from them and positions Murdoch as a character who shares both genius and moral ambiguity with his espionage-fiction counterparts.