New in Paperback: ‘Spies of No Country’ and ‘Daisy Jones & the Six’

SPIES OF NO COUNTRY: Israel’s Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad, by Matti Friedman. (Algonquin, 249 pp. , $16. 95.

) Friedman tells the story of four young Jews who, beginning in 1948, worked undercover as spies in Arab territory, laying the groundwork for the future of the Israeli intelligence force. Our reviewer, Neal Bascomb, praised the book’s “unadorned yet piercing prose. ” DAISY JONES & THE SIX, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Ballantine, 367 pp.

, $17. ) Presented as a mock oral history of a 1970s rock band, Reid’s sixth novel follows Daisy Jones, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and Billy Dunne, a guitarist with a drug problem and a pregnant girlfriend, as their paths cross musically and romantically. In her review, Eleanor Henderson called it Reid’s “most sophisticated and ambitious novel. ” THE SPIRIT OF SCIENCE FICTION, by Roberto Bolaño.

Translated by Natasha Wimmer. (Penguin, 196 pp. , $16. ) Written by the acclaimed Chilean author when he was 31, this novel tracks two young poets as they wander through Mexico City, seeking the literary life.

“This playfully difficult, gem-choked puzzle of a book ... serves as a key to Bolaño’s later work, unlocking clues to his abiding obsessions,” Liesl Schillinger wrote here. SLEEPING WITH STRANGERS: How the Movies Shaped Desire, by David Thomson.

“(Vintage, 348 pp.”

, $17. ) The prolific film scholar and critic Thomson blends memoir and history to explore the multifaceted connections between film, masculinity, femininity and modern erotic life. “Thomson, a stylist extraordinaire, has written an unaccountable and irresistible book,” Daphne Merkin wrote in her review. LANDFALL, by Thomas Mallon.

(Vintage, 473 pp. , $16. 95. ) Mallon’s 10th novel tracks a love affair between two Texans who get together while working for George W.