The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service

The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service

by Andrew Meier (Author)

Synopsis

For half a century, the case of Isaiah Oggins, a 1920s New York intellectual brutally murdered in 1947 on Stalin's orders, remained hidden in the secret files of the KGB and the FBI - a footnote buried in the rubble of the Cold War. Then, in 1992, it surfaced briefly, when Boris Yeltsin handed over a deeply censored dossier to the White House. 'The Lost Spy' at last reveals the truth: Oggins was one of the first Americans to spy for the Soviets. Based on six years of international sleuthing, 'The Lost Spy' traces Oggins's rise in beguiling detail - a brilliant Columbia University graduate sent to run a safe house in Berlin and spy on the Romanovs in Paris and the Japanese in Manchuria - and his fall: death by poisoning in a KGB laboratory. As harrowing as 'Darkness at Noon' and as tragic as 'Dr Zhivago', 'The Lost Spy' is one of the great non-fiction detective stories of our time.

$3.44

Save:$23.10 (87%)

Quantity

3 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Orion
Published: 02 Mar 2009

ISBN 10: 0297856553
ISBN 13: 9780297856559
Book Overview: Outstanding advance quotes: 'A masterful work of historical recovery and fascinating story brilliantly told.' - Orlando Figes. The Lost Spy is a jewel - one of those great lost spy stories from the cold war but this one is special: the story of the shadowy life and killing of Stalin's American agent and victim. As gripping as a thriller, The Lost Spy is part history, part biography, and part quest.' - Simon Sebag Montefiore. Vividly cinematic story - non fiction with the verve and pace of a thriller.

Media Reviews
'This is a remarkable book, painstakingly researched.' -- Nikolai Tolstoy LITERARY REVIEW 'As a piece of historical detective work, Meier's book is a triumph... a fine acheivement: not only a spy story worthy of John le Carre, but a grim reminder of the brutal reality of Stalin's secret world.' -- Dominic Sandbrook DAILY TELEGRAPH 'meticulously researched, exquisitely paced and genuinely thrilling' -- Alan Taylor SUNDAY HERALD (GLASGOW) 'richly informative' EVENING STANDARD 'a stunning example of historical detection and an illuminating biography of a lost soul.' DAILY EXPRESS 'a fascinating story' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'the book is amazing, if simply as a piece of phenomenally dedicated detective work... there's forgotten history here, a history we shouldn't forget.' THE TABLET 'Quite simply it is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read... This is a book magnificent in its historical political and geographical sweep... it is impeccably researched and beautifully written... Read it and weep if you will - but read it, please.' -- Stephen Pound TRIBUNE
Author Bio
Andrew Meier, a former Moscow correspondent for Time magazine, is the author of 'Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall', which was named a Book of the Year by the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist and Publishers Weekly. He lives in New York.