The Spy and the Traitor

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇó The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with his greatest spy story yet,a thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievskythe Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War. ΓÇ£The best true spy story I have ever read.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöJOHN LE CARR├ë Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist ΓÇó Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philbyit was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutionsthe savvysophisticated 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 Londonbut from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decadeas the Cold War reached its twilightGordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGBexposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plotsas 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 closeMI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIAwhich 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 Amesthe man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between AmericaBritainand the Soviet Unionand culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985Ben 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 betrayalwhere the lines bleed between the personal and the professionaland one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.