• The Snowden Files

  • The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man
  • By: Luke Harding
  • Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
  • Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (307 ratings)

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The Snowden Files  By  cover art

The Snowden Files

By: Luke Harding
Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
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Publisher's summary

It began with a tantalizing, anonymous email: "I am a senior member of the intelligence community."

What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. Edward Snowden was a 29-year-old computer genius working for the National Security Agency when he shocked the world by exposing the near-universal mass surveillance programs of the United States government. His whistleblowing has shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, and generated a passionate public debate on the dangers of global monitoring and the threat to individual privacy.

In a tour de force of investigative journalism that reads like a spy novel, award-winning Guardian reporter Luke Harding tells Snowden's astonishing story - from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend in Honolulu carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of his secret-spilling in Hong Kong, to his battle for asylum and his exile in Moscow. For the first time, Harding brings together the many sources and strands of the story - touching on everything from concerns about domestic spying to the complicity of the tech sector - while also placing us in the room with Edward Snowden himself. The result is a gripping insider narrative - and a necessary and timely account of what is at stake for all of us in the new digital age.

©2014 Luke Harding (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Reads like a le Carré novel crossed with something by Kafka.... A fast-paced, almost novelistic narrative.... [The book] gives readers... a succinct overview of the momentous events of the past year.... Leave[s] readers with an acute understanding of the serious issues involved." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
"[Snowden's] story is one of the most compelling in the history of American espionage.... The Snowden Files, by Luke Harding, a correspondent for the Guardian newspaper, which broke the initial Snowden story, is the first to assemble the sequence of events in a single volume. The book captures the drama of Snowden’s operation in often-cinematic detail.... Harding has delivered a clearly written and captivating account of the Snowden leaks and their aftermath." ( The Washington Post)
"Engaging and lucid.... A gripping read.... Harding is a gifted writer.... The strength of Harding's book is its ability to bring Snowden's story to life while elucidating the contours of a much larger set of issues.... In rendering the complicated comprehensible in an entertaining way, Harding's book provides an important public service."( San Francisco Chronicle)

What listeners say about The Snowden Files

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    4 out of 5 stars
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we are all being scrutinized

The biggest takeaway with this book is that the virtual world is not governed by the Constitution, so Obama and Bush don't care about your privacy. The major software companies, Apple being one of the last, gave back door access to the NSA. It is all legal in their minds. In today's news we see China complaining about this back door access. You can bet that the entire G-20 wants to protect their little fraternity. Whatever we think we have these guys have something that can probably read minds by now. Maybe we will all become some sort of cyber zombies? I pound into this iPad 5 hours a day with endless drivel. It is reshaping my thinking. The machines really are too much. You are not anonymous, so don't ever feel that way. Big Brother is watching. Down with Big Brother. Power to the people!

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5 people found this helpful

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This is not Black & White: Privacy vs Security

Where does The Snowden Files rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 10

Who was your favorite character and why?

Edward Snowden is an enigmatic figure as described in this account. Should freedom-loving people empathize with the moral dilemma he faced whether to "out" the US and UK's extensive surveillance capabilities which clearly crossed the line beyond constitutional boundaries with respect to private citizens? At the same time, should we be asking how can he do this and align himself with manipulative nations and parties whose own history of human rights abuses are far worse than those of this nation he supposedly loves? Was there a better, possibly more courageous way to make his case- and one that would not result in such terrible damage to the US? Ultimately, time and history will tell whether Edward Snowden acted as a patriot, or as a traitor. Some things that seem black and white are not always so simple.

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of how one single young man without a high school degree or extensive experience could be entrusted with such wide-ranging classified and top secret information. Stranger than fiction.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Truth about Living in the Digital Age. Just as you always suspected: Everything you say and everything you write is being Recorded.

Any additional comments?

In an open society, there will always be crucial debates about the trade-offs between personal privacy and security. There will always be debates about whether the "ends" justify the "means" when it comes to security. These are among the most compelling and important topics of our day and age.

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4 people found this helpful

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Not sure if it's worth the listen...

As a Senior Infrastructure and Security Engineer in the I.T. field for 22+years I am very interested in this realm. Although I understand it very thoroughly I can honestly state from a technical perspective some of what is discussed in this book is not legitimate. Don't get me wrong, the technology exists and can do everything that is discussed, but the data processing and parsing is not realistic as it is made out to be in this book.

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3 people found this helpful

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Important Book

Very good book. I also listened to Glenn Greenwald's book on the same topic. Both are definitely worth a listen.

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Scope and Substance.

This account match my understanding of the sequence of events, but I enjoyed learning more about reactions outside of the US and UK!

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Drawn out with little substance

This book was about 10 hours in length I believe, but could of been done in an hour. The book just repeats the same basic information over and over again. I can’t really tell you one piece of information that you probably didn’t know even if you didn’t watch the news and barely knew who Snowden was. Very un eventful book.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good info, just kinda long and drawn out

Really good info. Not as entertaining as I thought it would be. Still, I'm glad I listened to it. Everyone should!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great True Story

Great story, it is very informative. I will be looking for other versions of this story to find more information.

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Mostly objective, sometimes melodramatic

Any additional comments?

Solid journalistic telling of Edward Snowden's exposure of extralegal surveillance by the NSA. The book reads well and offers some perspective that was not possible to get in real time as one headline after another assaulted the world. While the author sometimes seems a bit dramatic (which can color the objectivity of certain passages), overall the facts and events are recounted with a fair amount of balance. Because the book was written after most of the repercussions had time to play out, the author has the chance to highlight where government explanations and excuses did not completely line up with the data provided. A bonus in the book, at least for readers not entirely familiar with law, journalism and freedom of press in the UK (which I, admittedly, was not), is a comparison of the relationship of government to the press compared and contrasted in the US and the UK. All in all, a readable accounting of the Snowden affair, with the end (i.e., Snowden's ultimate fate) yet to be written.

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  • PL
  • 08-01-15

Ed Snowden's Patriotism Delivered U.S. From Evil

Everyone that uses or has any information online needs to know about these numerous revelations!

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1 person found this helpful