Agent Sonya - by Ben MacIntyre (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"[An] immensely exciting, fast-moving account."--The Washington Post

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Foreign Affairs, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal

In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her.

They didn't know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn't know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb.

This true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named "Sonya." Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI--and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century--between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy--and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times.

With unparalleled access to Sonya's diaries and correspondence and never-before-seen information on her clandestine activities, Ben Macintyre has conjured a page-turning history of a legendary secret agent, a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers.

Review Quotes

"Macintyre is fastidious about tradecraft details. . . . [He] has become the preeminent popular chronicler of British intelligence history because he understands the essence of the business."--David Ignatius, The Washington Post

"Macintyre writes with novelistic flair."--Entertainment Weekly

"Macintyre is a superb writer, with an eye for the telling detail as fine as any novelist's."--The Dallas Morning News

"Macintyre is one of the most gifted espionage writers around."--Annie Jacobsen, author of Area 51 and Operation Paperclip

"Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller."--John Banville, The Guardian (UK)

"With Macintyre in charge, you're virtually guaranteed a history book that reads like a spy novel."--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"A scrupulous and insightful writer--a master historian."--Alan Furst, author of Mission to Paris

"Macintyre is a master at leading the reader down some very tortuous paths while ensuring they never lose their bearings."--Evening Standard (UK)

"Macintyre . . . has that enviable gift, the inability to write a dull sentence."--The Spectator (UK)

About the Author