Fellow Travelers

It's 1950s Washington, D.C.: a world of bare-knuckled ideology and secret dossiers, dominated by personalities like Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Joe McCarthy. Enter Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and devout Catholic eager to join the crusade against Communism. An encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair. As McCarthy mounts a desperate bid for power and internal investigations focus on "sexual subversives" in the government, Tim and Fuller find it ever more dangerous to navigate their double lives. Moving between the diplomatic world of Foggy Bottom and NATO's front line in Europe,Fellow Travelersis a searing historical novel infused with political drama, unexpected humor, and genuine heartbreak.

Thomas Mallon is the author of seven novels, including Bandbox, Henry and Clara, and Dewey Defeats Truman. Among his nonfiction books are studies of diaries (A Book of One’s Own), plagiarism (Stolen Words), and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine’s Garage). A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and other publications, he lives in Washington, D.C.


From the Hardcover edition.