Título: Agent Sonya: The Spy Next Door
Autor: Ben Macintyre
Sinopse: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times bestseller The Spy and the Traitor uncovers the true story behind one of the Cold War’s most intrepid spies.
“[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.
Contexto da obra
Como livro em inglês, esta obra costuma ganhar também uma camada própria de interesse editorial e linguístico. “Agent Sonya: The Spy Next Door”, de Ben Macintyre, publicado pela editora Crown, em 2021 e com 432 páginas, integra a categoria Livros em Inglês. Por isso, o interesse da obra tende a se ampliar quando o leitor considera também a relação com a língua em que ela circula.
Editora: Crown
Páginas: 432
Ano: 2021-07-27
Edição:
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 0593136322
ISBN13: 9780593136324
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora CROWN apresentam uma leitura que mescla narrativas pessoais intensas e relatos investigativos, frequentemente ancorados em histórias reais ou contextos sociais complexos. O catálogo traz obras que exploram desde conflitos culturais profundos, como a vida de mulheres em sociedades restritivas, até análises detalhadas de crises contemporâneas, como ameaças à infraestrutura e desafios políticos. O tom varia entre o rigor documental e o relato íntimo, criando uma experiência que tanto informa quanto provoca reflexão. Muitas obras privilegiam personagens multifacetados e dilemas morais, enquanto outras adotam ritmo mais dinâmico e envolvente, com foco em eventos históricos ou biográficos.
