Agent Sonya

Ben Macintyre has done it, again! Agent Sonya - lover, mother, soldier, spy - is an extremely good biography. Macintyre has written several biographies about famous spies. And Agent Sonya fits well into this series. This is the story of the female spy Ursula Kuczynski. And what a story! Like the writer’s other books about espionage and spies, it is thrilling - and can be read like a thriller. This is biography writing at its best. The writer paints the big canvas: Here is drama, passion, fear, paranoia, deception, danger. We are presented to a large numbers of individuals, one more intriguing and fascinating than the other. The book contains accurately written history, in depth descriptions of people’s psychology, all put together in a most readable way. My best compliment: A good read! I highly recommend this book.

Excellent research and a cast of compelling characters. Ursula is brilliant, brave and resourceful and a woman of her convictions. However, I found the writing rather plodding and long winded. I think the book could have used more rigorous editing. I would still recommend the book for the great story and the painstaking research.

I have read most of Macintyre’s books and they are all gripping. I found Agent Sonya a little more difficult to get into but once I did it did not disappoint. I have read reviews that have criticized the book for its subject matter. How can we relate to a Soviet spy? How can we feel anything for someone who worked for Stalin against the West? I think that is an over simplification. I tried to put myself in the shoes of Ursula Maria Kuczynski, a young German Jew horrified at the rise of fascism in Europe in the 20’s and 30’s. Like Ursula I would like to think that I would do all I could to resist and to fight. The natural vehicle for Ursula to travel in to conduct that fight was the communist party and she joined in 1926, just as Hitler was rising to prominence. European communists fought fascism in Spain, Germany, the Far East and Eastern Europe and were a major part of the French resistance. Ursula becomes a committed communist (and anti fascist) and an accomplished asset as we follow her from Germany to China and thereafter to Switzerland and finally to the UK. This is where the story becomes a little muddy for many. Yes, Ursula spied for Stalin, a man as despotic and evil as Hitler. But at that time Churchill and Roosevelt were working with the Soviet leader and we were allies. Ursula spied against the Nazi’s for the Soviets while in the UK but she also helped to infiltrate communist spies into the US atomic weapons program. In doing so she helped the Soviets to develop their own atomic bomb. Obviously this puts her beyond the pale for many people but the world was a different place 60 and 70 years ago. Who knows, without Ursula maybe we would not have had a world where both sides of the Cold War had the means to totally annihilate the other? Maybe in that scenario, without the promise of “mutually assured destruction”, a Nixon or a Reagan or, heaven forbid, a Trump may have been tempted to wipe out half the planet. We’ll never know. A great read, chock full of exceptionally interesting characters like Agnes Smedley, Richard Sorge and Sandro Rado and another triumph for Mr Macintyre.

This biographical story of the Soviet Union's female spy who served from before World War II through the Cold War is a gripping read. It is not a "who dun it" it is a "how did she do it." The author takes you over much of the world and into the details of wartime espionage. The best thing I can say is that once I started reading it, I could hardly put it down. One quibble, the author has Ursula putting away her secret radio transmitter one time in 1938 and then "turning on her transistor radio and tuning in to the BBC...," but transistor radios were not invented until the 1950's. He should have just said: "turning on her house radio." I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII or Cold War history or to anyone who just wants to read a great spy story.

A true and exciting spy story told by the master of its kind, Ben MacIntyre.

MacIntyre never disappoints & Agent Sonya is another one of his well researched biographies. Written like a spy novel, it's hard to believe how a relatively innocuous wife & mother was one of the most effective Communist Spies who did so much damage to the West's military security from her activities in China, Switzerland and the UK. A real eye opener & a very enjoyable read.

Sonya a été formée en partie par Sorge, et a échappé aussi aux purges stalinienne, c'est toute l'histoire de la guerre froide!

great book; well written, indicates how people are blinded by communism, highly recommend to read

I downloaded the book in a hurry as I was short of time but relied on my taste for biography.and initially thought I had made a mistake. I thought I was going to be bored with a rather tiresome account of someone of little historical importance. How wrong could I be. It was not long before I was gripped by a deeply interesting biography of someone who's views were very different from my own. The book allows one to consider the person in some depth and what motivated her to keep faith with her beliefs even by exposing her nearest and dearest to danger. Having finished the book I still do not fully understand her. The book is extremely well written and researched and my next read will have to be pretty good to match this one.