The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Recently, my audiobooks weren’t working for me; I’d start one after another, quickly abandoning each. I listened just long enough to count as samples. So, I knew that meant it was time to return to some narrative nonfiction.

@SarahsBookshelves brought this one to an episode of Double Booked late last year, and then it popped up in her 2024 Summer Reading Guide, so it had remained on my radar and in the back of my head. I’m so glad in my mad search for an audiobook that would fit the bill, I recalled this one.

The Spy and the Traitor is a wholly engrossing espionage-centered biography about Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who spied for MI6 during the Cold War. Disillusioned with Soviet communism, he helped the West by exposing Russian spies and sabotaging Soviet plots. Macintyre details the intense spy games between the US, UK, and USSR, and culminates in Gordievsky's dramatic escape from Moscow in 1985. It's a thrilling tale of espionage, betrayal, and the impact one man had on history.

Also, I’m so glad I saw some reviews that instructed to not start the last section (Part 3) of the book until you have nothing else to do but listen (or read), because you will be riveted. While it didn’t quite capture me to the extent that I was on the edge of my seat, it came close and my attention was certainly rapt. The cinematic way Macintyre delivered the extraordinary exfiltration was perfection.