judas country

post-wwii mediterranean smuggling thriller. there's a little bit of han solo and a little bit of cool hand luke in the protagonist. unlike those two characters, though, perhaps things can't always go right. his flying contractor goes bust leaving him with some 'champagne' in the hold, but there's actually a lot of small arms and and old buddy fresh out of israeli prison to catch up with...

really chilled out first-person narrative makes you feel like you've also got a post wwii hangover and an old transport plane that you can barely keep flying ... but when you're up in the air it's the only place where your life still makes sense. obviously a bit pulpy, but very transportive reading this ~50 years later.