Owen Matthews

Libro del año en The Sunday Times. Libro del año en The EconomistRichard Sorge fue un hombre con dos patrias. Hijo de padre alemán y de madre rusa nacido en Bakú en 1895, se movió en un mundo de alianzas inestables e infinitas posibilidades. Sorge pertenecia a aquella generacion indignada y decepcionada que encontro nuevas y radicales ideas tras su experiencia en los campos de batalla de la primera guerra mundial; se convirtio en un fanatico del comunismo y en el mejor espia de la Union Sovietica.Como muchos buenos espias, Sorge fue un seductor incansable, combinando su encanto con un despiadado poder de manipulacion. Gracias a su magnetismo consiguio sobrevivir en todos los ambientes, conquistar a todas las mujeres y trabar amistad con todas las grandes personalidades con las que se cruzo. Como corresponsal extranjero se interno y tuvo influencia en las mas altas esferas de las sociedades alemana, china y japonesa en los años previos y durante la segunda guerra mundial. Su historia personal resulta fascinante por la cantidad de escenarios donde sucede (desde la Rusia revolucionaria hasta el Japon imperial, pasando por las trincheras alemanas de la primera guerra mundial al ascenso nazi o los Estados Unidos prebelicos y la China sacudida por la guerra civil). Se convirtio en un valor incalculable para nazis, japoneses y rusos, y desde la otra punta del mundo sera el quien advierta de la Operacion Barbarroja y las intenciones japonesas de no invadir Siberia en 1941, que resulto fundamental para la contraofensiva sovietica en la Batalla de Moscu, y que a su vez determino el resultado de la guerra.

Lincroyable histoire du plus grand espion du XXe siècle.La vie de Richard Sorge (1895-1944) est un roman vrai. Celui dun soldat allemand, révolté par la Première Guerre mondiale, et qui se rallie à l

1961. Hidden deep within central Soviet Russia is a place that doesn't appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here dedicated scientists and technicians are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see - three thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima.But days before the bomb is to be tested, a young physicist is found dead. His body contains enough radioactive poison to kill thousands. The authorities believe it is suicide - they want the corpse disposed of, the incident filed and forgotten. But Moscow is alarmed by what's going on in this strange, isolated place.

The new novel from a master of the Cold War thriller . . .This is Robert Harris storytelling territoryDaily MailOutstandingSunday TimesTense, exciting and authenticCharles Cumming, author of Judas 62StunningThe TimesBrilliantly plottedJohn Sweeney, author of Killer in the KremlinA standout thrillerFinancial Times1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, a radio broadcasts news of the killing of President John F. Kennedy . . .Alexander Vasins new posting as director of a brutal gulag camp is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced KGB officers are sent to disappear, quietly, and forgotten.But when a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin must decide: run or die. So he runs. With him goes a mysterious prisoner an individual who might hold the key to an extraordinarily dangerous secret: the identity of who really ordered Kennedys assassination.Racing from bleak Siberian wastelands to the grey streets of Soviet Moscow, Vasin needs to stay one step ahead of the most ruthless intelligence organization in the world in order to keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. And with his loyalty, morality and patriotic duty tested to the limits, he will face the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system . . .Weaving together a critical moment in history with the cut-throat machinations of Soviet politics, this tautly told, nail-bitingly atmospheric novel is a superb Cold War thriller.

This is Robert Harris storytelling territory and is told with equal panache and authenticity. There could be no higher praise.Daily MailOne the least known but most terrifying moments in modern history - when the fate of the world lay with a lone, nervous Soviet naval officer one hundred meters under the Caribbean sea - lies at the heart of this breathtaking new Cold War thriller from the author of the acclaimed Black Sun.The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts: for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But its while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr. As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines - each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads - are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . . .

Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023*A Telegraph Book of the Year* A Times Best Book of Summer 2023*Shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards* An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol. The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin apparently lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime and Russia itself at risk of destruction. Why? Drawing on over 25 years experience as a correspondent in Moscow, as well as his own family ties to Russia and Ukraine, journalist Owen Matthews takes us through the poisoned historical roots of the conflict, into the Covid bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of paranoia about Western threats, and finally into the inner circle around Ukrainian president and unexpected war hero Volodimir Zelensky. Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the wars causes but how the first six months unfolded. With its panoramic view, Overreach is an authoritative, unmissable record of a conflict that shocked Europe to its core.

OutstandingSUNDAY TIMESA stunning debut thriller . . . utterly terrifying . . . absolutely rivetingDAILY MAIL Fascinating . . . fearsomeFREDERICK FORSYTHEnthrallingFINANCIAL TIMESThrilling . . . compellingSIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE1961. Hidden deep within central Soviet Russia is a place that doesnt appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here dedicated scientists and technicians are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see - three thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. But days before the bomb is to be tested, a young physicist is found dead. His body contains enough radioactive poison to kill thousands. The authorities believe it is suicide - they want the corpse disposed of, the incident filed and forgotten. But Moscow is alarmed by whats going on in this strange, isolated place. And so KGB major Alexander Vasin is sent to Arzamas to investigate. What he finds there is unlike anything hes experienced before. His wits will be tested against some of the Soviet Unions most brilliant minds - eccentrics, patriots and dissidents who, because their work is considered to be of such vital importance, have been granted the freedom to think and act, live and love as they wish. For in Arzamas, nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the project. Not even murder . . . Intricately researched, cunningly plotted and brilliantly told, Black Sun is a fast-paced and timely thriller set at the height - and in the heart - of Soviet power from the acclaimed author of An Impeccable Spy.What readers are saying: Woven around real events, people and places, its genuinely terrifying stuff *****The twists and turns and intrigue kept me on tenterhooks *****Brings alive one of the most fascinating periods of Soviet history *****

On a midsummer day in 1937, Boris Bibikov kissed his two daughters goodbye and disappeared. One of those girls, Lyudmila, was to fall in love with a tall young foreigner in Moscow at the height of the Cold War and embark on a dangerous and passionate affair. Decades later, a reporter in nineties Moscow, her son Owen Matthews pieces together his grandfather's passage through the harrowing world of Stalin's purges, and tells the story of his parents' Cold War love affair through their heartbreaking letters and memories. Stalin's Children is a raw, vivid memoir about a young man's struggle to understand his parents' lives and the history of the strange country in which they lived.

Richard Sorge fue un hombre con dos patrias. Hijo de padre alemán y de madre rusa nacido en Bakú en 1895, se movió en un mundo de alianzas inestables e infinitas posibilidades. Sorge pertenecía a aquella generacion indignada y decepcionada que encontro nuevas y radicales ideas tras su experiencia en los campos de batalla de la primera guerra mundial; se convirtio en un fanatico del comunismo y en el mejor espia de la Union Sovietica.Como muchos buenos espias, Sorge fue un seductor incansable, combinando su encanto con un despiadado poder de manipulacion. Gracias a su magnetismo consiguio sobrevivir en todos los ambientes, conquistar a todas las mujeres y trabar amistad con todas las grandes personalidades con las que se cruzo. Como corresponsal extranjero se interno y tuvo influencia en las mas altas esferas de las sociedades alemana, china y japonesa en los años previos y durante la segunda guerra mundial. Su historia personal resulta fascinante por la cantidad de escenarios donde sucede (desde la Rusia revolucionaria hasta el Japon imperial, pasando por las trincheras alemanas de la primera guerra mundial al ascenso nazi o los Estados Unidos prebelicos y la China sacudida por la guerra civil). Se convirtio en un valor incalculable para nazis, japoneses y rusos, y desde la otra punta del mundo sera el quien advierta de la Operacion Barbarroja y las intenciones japonesas de no invadir Siberia en 1941, que resulto fundamental para la contraofensiva sovietica en la Batalla de Moscu, y que a su vez determino el resultado de la guerra.