RaveForeign AffairsEven a reader not enamored of spy stories will have trouble putting this one down ... The whole story, including Gordievsky’s return to Moscow...unfolds with a pace and drama that recall the novels of John le Carré.
Katherine Verdery
RaveForeign Affairs...an extraordinary exploration of her research, reexperienced through the eyes of those who surveilled her ... Coming from such a distinguished academic, Verdery’s brutally honest description of herself, including as a naive and careless young scholar, is stunning. Few books reflect so frankly and so powerfully on the nature and complications of an academic career.
William Taubman
PositiveForeign AffairsIn this combination of deeply penetrating history and engrossing psychological study, Taubman draws on a wide range of sources and interviews (including seven with his main subject) to render every major development of the former Soviet leader’s six-year tenure with depth and completeness ...spans Mikhail Gorbachev’s entire life, up to the present day, which finds him despairing over the direction that Russia has taken under President Vladimir Putin ...book grants the reader behind-the-scenes access to Politburo meetings, Gorbachev’s private conversations with aides, and his give-and-takes with foreign leaders.
