THE REDEMPTION

opens in the world's most oppressive and isolated totalitarian state: Albania in the 1970s. A prisoner suspected of being an enemy agent is held by state security. An unsettling presence, he maintains an eerie silence though subjected to unimaginable torture. He escapes - and on the way to freedom, completes a mysterious mission. The prisoner is Dimiter, the American ''agent from Hell''. The scene shifts to Jerusalem, focusing on Hadassah Hospital and a cast of unusual characters. All become enmeshed in a series of baffling, inexplicable deaths, until events explode in a surprising climax.

Told with unrelenting pace, THE REDEMPTION''s compelling, page-turning narrative is haunted by the search for faith and the truths of the human condition.