Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Firefly
    Firefly
    Firefly
    Audiobook12 hours

    Firefly

    Written by Henry Porter

    Narrated by Matt Addis

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    From the refugee camps of Greece to the mountains of Macedonia, a thirteen-year-old boy is making his way to Germany and to safety. Codenamed "Firefly," he holds vital intelligence: unparalleled insight into a vicious ISIS terror cell, and details of their plans. But the terrorists are hot on his trail, determined he won't live to pass on the information.

    When MI6 become aware of Firefly and what he knows, the race is on to find him. Luc Samson, ex-MI6 agent and now private eye, finds himself recruited to the cause. Fluent in Arabic thanks to his Lebanese heritage and himself the product of an earlier era of violent civil war, Samson's job is to find Firefly, win his trust, and get him to safety.

    A devastatingly timely thriller following the refugee trail from Syria to Europe, Firefly is a sophisticated, breathtaking race against time from an author who brings a whole new level of urgency to the genre.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9781684415991

    More audiobooks from Henry Porter

    Related to Firefly

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Also Out

      Mar 23, 2022

      We enjoyed previous Sarah Lotz books like The Three, so we were surprised that her latest looks like a simple love story. However, Amazon has IMPOSSIBLE (out now, Harper Collins) filed under “romance time travel”… A pleasure moon is the setting of Kh

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Truth About Lie Detectors

      Apr 25, 2022

      You’ve seen polygraph tests a thousand times on crime dramas and daytime TV: a stubborn suspect gets hooked to the machine and their darkest secrets come spilling out, etched forever onto a roll of paper. Its results are often presented as fact, as b

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Four Best Audiobooks Of June To Take You Places

      Jun 23, 2020

      Hardboiled mysteries, obscure farming communities, and tales of home and family provide ample entertainment in June’s audiobook roundup.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Oxygen

      Jul 19, 2022

      Oxygen
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Pallbearers Club

      Jun 15, 2022

      The Pallbearers Club
      1 min read

    • Article

      Waving Not Drowning

      Aug 8, 2022

      Waving Not Drowning
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Hook Of The Sea

      Feb 3, 2022

      The Hook Of The Sea
      2 min read

    • Article

      Queen Of Salt

      Feb 6, 2020

      Queen Of Salt
      10 min read

    • Article

      Skein Is land

      Nov 6, 2019

      Skein Is land
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Visitors

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Visitors
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tales of Escape

      Sep 1, 2021

      Tales of Escape
      7 min read

    • Article

      Jenkins

      Feb 4, 2021

      Jenkins
      6 min read

    • Article

      Temptation

      Dec 28, 2021

      Temptation
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Ferryman

      Oct 26, 2020

      At the end of the summer, when the high tide of tourists had gone out but autumn proper was still a few weeks away, the foot ferry still ran on the August timetable. It was always dead quiet when he made the first run over to Fowey from Polruan; even

      6 min read

    • Article

      Instructions For The Drowning

      Jun 1, 2021

      Instructions For The Drowning
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Wrong Shampoo

      Apr 10, 2022

      Brandy scoured the rows of bubble gum bright shampoo bottles. How much time had passed already? She looked to the front of the store but couldn’t see the checkout lines. She had only been to Jeff’s apartment once so far and didn’t remember what brand

      16 min read

    • Article

      Under WATER

      Aug 10, 2021

      Under WATER
      6 min read

    • Article

      JODI PICOULT Trouble In Paradise

      Dec 29, 2021

      JODI PICOULT Trouble In Paradise
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Selkie Moon

      Dec 3, 2020

      The Selkie Moon
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Denial Of Death

      Sep 15, 2018

      I had left my passport at an inn we stayed at for a night or so whose name I couldn’t remember. This is how it began. The next hotel would not receive me. A beautiful hotel, in an orange grove, with a view of the sea. How casually you accepted the ro

      3 min read

    • Article

      Thieves

      Apr 11, 2018

      Thieves
      25 min read

    • Article

      Ponderation

      Mar 1, 2020

      THE WORLD slides away in great chunks. Literally, the ground beneath your feet—gone. There are four sinkholes in and around Wink, Texas, the most famous being the Wink Sink. No one knows how deep it goes, but in 2002, a lone diver tried to figure it

      9 min read

    • Article

      New Land

      Oct 13, 2017

      New Land
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Firefly

    4/5

    30 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      In "Firefly," Henry Porter describes the coming of age of Naji Touma, a thirteen-year-old boy from northern Syria who bears a heavy burden for one so young. He flees his native land after witnessing indescribable horrors, and then sets out on what he hopes will be a path to freedom. He is determined to bring his mother and sisters from a migrant camp in Turkey to Germany, where they hope to start a new life. Naji, who is brilliant, mature, and audacious, has a stratospheric IQ and impressive technical ability. Not only is he a self-taught computer expert who speaks several languages, but he is also an excellent strategist who has a greater understanding of human nature than many adults twice his age. He will need luck, stamina, and sophisticated survival skills, since a vicious band of terrorists are on his trail. The thugs pursuing Naji are desperate to get their hands on incriminating evidence that the boy has cleverly encrypted on his cell phone.

      During his trek to northern Europe, Naji meets various individuals, some of whom lend him a hand, while others try to exploit him. On the Greek island of Lesbos, a compassionate psychologist, Anastasia Christakos, gains Naji's trust. He reveals to her that he is running away from ruthless fiends who, if they succeed in apprehending him, will likely torture and execute him. The other central character is Luc Samson, a former member of Britain's MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service), who now works in the private sector. When one of his former colleagues asks for Samson's help, he reluctantly agrees to do what he can to locate Naji and protect him from harm.

      This is an involving and suspenseful work of fiction, in which Porter demonstrates the perils that displaced persons fleeing violence encounter when they try to cross borders into countries where they are often unwelcome. The author vilifies self-serving government officials who wish to extract Naji's secrets and, once he has told them everything he knows, think nothing of throwing him to the wolves. As Naji makes his way through treacherous terrain in all kinds of weather, he buys (and steals) food, camps out at night, and builds temporary shelters to keep himself warm and dry. Porter is a strong descriptive writer who paints vivid scenes that are humorous, frightening, dispiriting, and heartwarming. Aside from its clich̩d finale, "Firefly" is a rousing and poignant tale of grit, tenacity, and endurance in the face of overwhelming odds.
    • 4/5
      Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Publisher Says: From the refugee camps of Greece to the mountains of Macedonia, a thirteen year old boy is making his way to Germany and safety. Codenamed 'Firefly', he holds vital intelligence: unparalleled insight into a vicious ISIS terror cell, and details of their plans. But the terrorists are hot on his trail, determined he won't live to pass on the information.When MI6 become aware of Firefly and what he knows, the race is on to find him. Paul Samson, ex-MI6 agent and now private eye, finds himself recruited to the cause. Fluent in Arabic thanks to his Lebanese heritage, Samson's job is to find Firefly, win his trust and get him to safety.A devastatingly timely thriller following the refugee trail from Syria to Europe, Firefly is a sophisticated, breathtaking race against time from the acclaimed and award-winning author of Brandenburg and The Dying Light.I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.My Review: Paul Samson, Arabophone Brit of Lebanese background, has a gambling problem that got him bounced from the intelligence job he loved. He's an adrenaline junky, so he wasn't unemployed for long; he's fluent in the language and conversant with the culture of one of the world's hotspots, so guess where his now-unofficial work takes him!Naji is the teenaged son of a Syrian academic who, gentle soul that he was, believed he could help some dissident students of his be found in Assad's brutal regime. He later died from the aftereffects of being tortured. Naji, after this awakening, is quick to see through ISIL's façade of acceptance and gets his family to Turkey preparatory to making it to Germany.With, because he's very intelligent but not very smart yet, damaging information he got because "he's just a kid" and the violent men paid no attention to him.
      His head went under. Seawater filled his nose and mouth; his eyes opened and he saw the black depths of the ocean below him. A moment later something knocked his legs—maybe part of the wreckage, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he was going to die. Then it came again. This time there was a distinct shove on his buttocks and whatever it was that moved with such intent beneath him lifted him up so his head and shoulders came out of the water and he was able to grab a plastic toggle on the section of the rubber craft that was still inflated.Not good for his chances of survival...but Paul Samson, now that British officialdom know Naji exists, is sent unofficially and deniably to make him safe and get him to the point he can give the information to them. Kid's a tyro...he leads everyone a merry chase. Author Porter writes a damn good story here, sets it in places I'm convinced he knows well enough to lead tours, but there's not much horsepower in his characters as people. Their motives are clear and powerful. They are also, unlike real people's and thus unlike the characters I most enjoy reading about, unmixed. Black-hearted people, white-hatted people...not a lot of nuance. That said I read the book as fast as I could. I wanted this kid to win and I think anyone who needs something more or less unambiguous for a restful but still exciting (weird sentence...but that's how this book came across for me) or at least very action-packed story of implausibly lucky good guys needs this read.
    • 5/5
      Feels so trueYou will like this book and you will learn from it. I have spent a lot of time recently working on refugee issues near the locations used in this story and this book feels so true. It reflects the experiences of my friends who have fled the destruction of their homes. For those of you who hear few real stories of refugees this book will be a revelation.It's a ripping good spy story too, with convincing characters, great scenery, and plausible action. I wish the author and publishers had used ISIL (closer to a correct translation) rather than ISIS and applaud their use of "Daesh", the regional name for ISIL, because not enough people know it.Terrible cover.I received a review copy of "Firefly" by Henry Porter (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com.
    • 4/5
      Thanks to Mysterious Press and Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy of this book. The views expressed are my own. Fired MI6 operative Paul Samson reluctantly agrees to help his former employers find a young Syrian refugee, Naji, who becomes known as Firefly. Naji has valuable intelligence about an ISIS warlord and is on the run from him and his henchmen, who want to kill him to prevent the spread of the information to the authorities.The story begins with Naji's arrival at Lesbos, a Greek island off the coast of Turkey. From there the story of Naji's journey northward is told in segments told from alternating points of view of Naji and Paul. Paul struggles to find Naji who needs to elude the IS warriors, while avoiding the authorities who would put him into custody as an unaccompanied minor. He needs to press on to Germany where he hopes to establish himself and set up a home for his family. It's an exciting and suspenseful story, with Naji having several dangerous adventures along the way. For example, at one point he and a companion are attacked by bears looking for food. It's an account of the struggles faced by refugees trying to reach the so-called Schengen area established by the European Union where they can re-settle. Nagi encounters many kind people along with the usual greedy ones who profit from the refugees' plight. The story also introduces Paul, a Lebanese refugee in his youth, who now that he has left MI6 works to find missing persons in the Mediterranean area. His main outside interest is betting on horse races in the UK; this activity is what led to his separation from MI6. It is a disappointment for me that this book doesn't really focus on Paul aside from his mission to locate Naji. However, it can serve as a platform for an interesting sequel.This is an intelligent thriller which provides background colour to the plight of refugees.
    • 5/5
      A young boy, seeking asylum for his family, is on the run, hoping to outwit terrorists determined to kill him before he can pass on the detailed terrorist plans he possesses. Told in alternating points of view between young Naji and former spy Peter Samson, the narrative, is graphic, gritty, and chilling as it recounts the stories of immigrants in peril, of those who seek to help them, and of depraved terrorists with dark and deadly agendas. With well-drawn, interesting characters, a strong sense of place, and an of-the-moment plot, this is a story that speaks to both the depravity and the nobleness of mankind.The ever-building tension of this pulse-pounding cat-and-mouse plot pulls readers in from the beginning. The harrowing, heart-rending tale is likely to be impossible to set aside before turning the final page. Highly recommended.I received a free copy of this eBook from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley #Firefly #NetGalley