A Man Under Authority

In A Man Under Authority, his first novel, Reid Mitchell introduces us to a retired “enemy” colonel who is hired as a consultant by an American movie director. In his assignment, the colonel is forced to confront his own past while we the readers must draw our own conclusions about the public and private uses of memory, history and morality.

• “A human portrait of a classic character, a lesson in history, and a comment not only on how we live but also on how we view our lives.” —Thomas E. Kennedy


• “An intriguing journey toward that ambiguous place where courage and fear, heroism and cowardice, and ambition and disillusion meet....Mitchell writes with grace and authority...” —Rosellen Brown