"Not many people can write splendid fiction about the inner workings of the American political state. In fact, Ward Just is the only one I can think of." ― Boston Globe In this novel of political intrigue, Pulitzer Prize finalist Ward Just captures the best and brightest of Washington amid turmoil of the sixties and its repercussions twenty years later. In the City of Fear follows the intersecting lives of a good congressman, his good wife, and the good wife's lover, an infantry colonel whose memories of the war, and a secret plot concocted by the Washington power brokers to win it, are more than he can bear. "Just bids to be considered the political novelist of his generation. He may even be considered for a rarer title, that of national novelist." ― New York Times Book Review "A brilliant, ambitious, and subtle novel about Vietnam." ― David Bradley, Philadelphia Inquirer "Just pours art, passion, and intelligence into his book…His language radiates. Just's style may be among the most elegant available to a contemporary American writer." ― Cleveland Plain Dealer Ward Just (1935―2019) was a war correspondent for the Washington Post and Newsweek , and the author of more than twenty novels, nonfiction books, and short story collections. These include the National Book Award Finalist Echo House , the Pulitzer Prize finalist An Unfinished Season , and the acclaimed novel Forgetfulness .