Split Bamboo

Read this book in high school English. It (along with I AM THE CHEESE) stuck with me over the years, so when I was able to lay my hands on a copy, I jumped at the chance. I wasn't disappointed. Fantastic read.

Larry Heddon's a ‘retired' spy. But China won't let that get in the way of killing his wife and kidnapping his son back to Beijing. Eager to retrieve his son, Heddon tries every diplomatic way possible to get his son back, but this is 1970s China and the Communists aren't interested in the yack of imperialist dogs. Five years pass before a real chance to steal into China comes; five agonizing years of not knowing whether or not his son remembers him or has been brainwashed by Heddon's and America's greatest enemy–an American traitor!