Agent Sonya

Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy

By: Ben Macintyre

Narrated by: Ben Macintyre

Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller

The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times best seller 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)

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by 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 façade 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 20th 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 pause-resisting 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.

©2020 Ben Macintyre (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[Ben] Macintyre at once exalts and subverts the myths of spy craft.” (The New Yorker)

“Macintyre is fastidious about tradecraft details. ... [He] has become the preeminent popular chronicler of British intelligence history because he understands the essence of the business.” (David Ignatius, The Washington Post)

“Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller.” (John Banville, The Guardian [UK])

Interesting spy story

This is not what I would call action packed. But it is worth a read a a solid look at what an ordinary spy did at the time of WWII and the early cold war.

Another masterpiece

Great story, rousing narrative, fascinating tidbits of 1930s-50s history. Macintyre has done it again. Highly recommend this to any and all interested in spies, WWII, and other such things.

educational

First time author for me. When I got this book I thought it was going to be historical fiction, a spy story of a Soviet spy during World war II. But it was more of a documentary of a real life spy. While it didn't have the suspense of a fictional spy novel it was still interesting and educational.

When you think of Soviet spies you might first think that most of them were Russian. But when you think it through, especially in listening to this book, you realize that prior to World War II, the communist movement was worldwide. Therefore, the spies could have, and did, come from everywhere.

In this case, 'Sonya' was a German Jew that came of age in Berlin after World War I and saw the inequities of the Weimar Republic, the poor and disenfranchised, and blamed it on the government and that conceptually communism was the fairest way to go. She became a lifelong die hard communist. Throw Hitler and fascism, Jewish persecution on top of that and you had someone who dedicated their life to right that injustice. This book tells her story and the environment she operated in. It's quite the story really.

Some historical miss steps but good overall.

Plastic bags and transistor radios before their time
and you're not going to make me write more because you want more of a review

An incredible story

I enjoy Macintyre’s books. This one is the first I’ve listened to that’s narrated by the author himself, and his voice isn’t as pleasant as the narrator of the other audiobooks. But the story is gripping and was unfamiliar to me. Good to remember that WWII and Cold War spy adventures are not just Bond-type macho adventures.

Dear Ben, leave narration to the pros

You overemphasize the final phrase or word in every other sentence, and these words and phrases are repeated (and repeated...).

As for the content, you seem to have lost your objectivity and developed a crush on this female spy, and the book has suffered. Stick with males, and let the superb John Lee do the talking.

awesome read

loved it highly recommend it. i enjoyed learning about a woman id never heard of. fascinating

Most excellent!

This was a fascinating tail of Ursula Kuczynski Hamburger Beurton… aka Sonya aka Ruth Werner’s life. Hard to believe that such an outwardly unassuming woman was such a prolific spy, and that the powers that be at the time, were so inept. Macintyre, as always, did an incredible job of researching and reporting this story in a most engaging way. I was gripped from the first sentence, to the last period.

Wanted to love it

The Spy and the Traitor was one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was hoping this would be similar. It was good, but it was so extensive and covered so many years that inevitably there were an incredible amount of contacts/code names/double and triple agents. It was hard to follow at some points. I still enjoyed it but there was more rewinding to re-listen than I usually do.

Wonderfully Human

This book, like all of MacIntyre's books is a celebration of the complexity of the interactions between humans, governments, militaries, and cultures. It's fast paced for the level of depth. I was not prepared to like this book as much as I did even though MacIntyre's work is some of my favorite.