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The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
History > Modern - 20th Century
- Crown Publishing Group (NY)
- Paperback
- 9781101904213
- 8.05 X 5.25 X 0.8 inches
- 0.74 pounds
- History > Modern - 20th Century
- (Single Author) Asian American
- English
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Book Description
The best true spy story I have ever read.--JOHN LE CARR�
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist - Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.
Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky's nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre's latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carr�, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man's hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
Author Bio
Ben Macintyre is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He has worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He is the author of nine previous books including Agent Zigzag, shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Galaxy British Book Award for Biography of the Year 2008, and the no. 1 bestsellers A Spy Among Friends, Operation Mincemeat, Double Cross and SAS: Rogue Heroes.
In 2019, The Spy and the Traitor, which tells the story of double KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky and was a No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller and shortlisted for the Ballie Gifford prize and National Book Awards. Ben’s new book Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy tells the story of Ursula Kuczynski – codename Sonya – the greatest female spy of the 20th Century.
Source: benmacintyre.com
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