Listen free for 30 days
-
Agent Sonya
- Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
Agent Zigzag
- A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
- Written by: Ben MacIntyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.
-
-
AN ABSOLUTE MUST FOR FANS OF ESPIONAGE!
- By Evalina on 2020-03-04
Written by: Ben MacIntyre
-
A Spy Among Friends
- Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.
-
-
Great read, fascinating story
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-08-16
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
-
-
Absolutely phenomenal
- By Chris H on 2019-04-05
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Prisoners of the Castle
- An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape.
-
-
easy listening and interesting story
- By LNM on 2022-11-17
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Double Cross
- The True Story of the D-Day Spies
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.
-
-
Ben at his very best
- By Nick on 2023-05-16
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
-
-
Captivating
- By sd on 2019-08-09
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Agent Zigzag
- A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
- Written by: Ben MacIntyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.
-
-
AN ABSOLUTE MUST FOR FANS OF ESPIONAGE!
- By Evalina on 2020-03-04
Written by: Ben MacIntyre
-
A Spy Among Friends
- Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.
-
-
Great read, fascinating story
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-08-16
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
-
-
Absolutely phenomenal
- By Chris H on 2019-04-05
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Prisoners of the Castle
- An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape.
-
-
easy listening and interesting story
- By LNM on 2022-11-17
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Double Cross
- The True Story of the D-Day Spies
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.
-
-
Ben at his very best
- By Nick on 2023-05-16
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
-
-
Captivating
- By sd on 2019-08-09
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
Operation Mincemeat
- How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
- Written by: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag was hailed as “rollicking, spellbinding” (New York Times), “wildly improbable but entirely true” (Entertainment Weekly), and, quite simply, “the best book ever written” (Boston Globe). In his new book, Operation Mincemeat, he tells an extraordinary story that will delight his legions of fans. In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated - Operation Mincemeat.
-
-
Very interesting story
- By mike on 2019-01-27
Written by: Ben Macintyre
-
The Billion Dollar Spy
- A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
- Written by: David E. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States.
-
-
informative, but boring
- By Will on 2024-03-18
Written by: David E. Hoffman
-
The Nazi Hunters
- The Ultra-Secret SAS Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals
- Written by: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
-
-
This should be made into a movie!
- By Schvenn on 2024-03-14
Written by: Damien Lewis
-
Eye of the Needle
- A Novel
- Written by: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence - a master spy with a legacy of violence in his blood, and the object of the most desperate manhunt in history.... But his fate lay in the hands of a young and vulnerable English woman, whose loyalty, if swayed, would assure his freedom - and win the war for the Nazis....
-
-
Excellent blend of historical fact and spy thriller!
- By Anonymous User on 2023-10-10
Written by: Ken Follett
-
A Woman of No Importance
- The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
- Written by: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and - despite her prosthetic leg - helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.
-
-
No issues with EXCELLENT narration!
- By Ron Larocque on 2019-07-16
Written by: Sonia Purnell
-
Midnight in Chernobyl
- Written by: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.
-
-
Hair raising
- By Dmitry on 2019-05-15
Written by: Adam Higginbotham
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.
What the critics say
“[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])
More from the same
Narrator:
What listeners say about Agent Sonya
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RJ
- 2021-10-18
Couldn't Stop Listening
Incredible true story, reads like a spy thriller! In addition to what the other reviewers have said I will add that I am not a student of communist or Soviet or WW2 History, and have at best a passing knowledge. The author does a great job circling back to remind the reader of the importance of other actors without derailing rhe pace of the narrative.
I immediately searched for more from Ben MacIntyre
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicholas
- 2021-12-13
Another tour de force by Macintyre
The fictional characters of Le Carré, Flemming, or Deighton have nothing on the real life characters that MacIntyre brings to life in his books. Agent Sonya has now taken her place in my growing library of MacIntyre's books next to Oleg Gordievsky, Paddy Mayne, Kim Philby, and Major Martin. Can't wait for his next book, and I don't care what it will be.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Susan Millar
- 2020-12-23
Macintyre Is the King of writing about spies
His books almost read like novels. He paints a well delineated picture of the spies, their life and times. You get the full context and the jeopardy. Spies are very singular courageous people, who put their lives on the line to support their beliefs about how society to operate.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-05-23
Fantasy
Suspenseful, consuming, and educational at the same time. A romp through some of the most interesting history of the mid-20th century
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stan C.
- 2021-02-09
Exceptional story
While I don't sympathize with Sonya and her life choices, I absolutely admire her resolve and determination. The story itself is amazing and it grabbed me from the beginning to the very end. It made me aware of historic facts I did not know previously. Overall I consider it to be a very well told life story and not simply a spy novel. I couldn't recommend it enough to anyone even remotely interested in 20th century history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Balanced View
- 2020-12-12
Incredible Story
Every bit as exciting as a fictional spy thriller- only it actually happened! The reading of it by the author was excellent as well. I wasn’t familiar with Macintyre before now but will look him out in future.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew
- 2024-03-03
A proper main character
Agent Sonya's life was one of tumult and change, so worthy of a biography. Ben MacKintyre provides a thorough account of Ursula's experiences told in such a way that it was almost fiction. I am inspired now to search for a radio in a forest in England.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- andrew
- 2020-10-21
Work-life balance gone awry
Those familiar with Ben Macintyre’s previous books such as Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag will find the style here very similar. The author uses an enthralling and exciting spy story about a unique individual to help describe some very important historic events of the 20th century. Agent Sonya/Ursula Kuczynski was, prior to this book, not very well known to the western side of the iron curtain. Klaus Fuchs is probably the better-known protagonist historically. She was and remains a huge hero to the Russians and their allies. Ursula’s primary motivation seems to have been a ruthless dedication to communism. She was undoubtedly very lucky but had an amazing knack of being in the right place at the right time. It is telling that her children, by three separate fathers, Misha/Michael, Nina and Peter, all had had thoughts about whether they were just cover for Ursula’s espionage career. At times she certainly used them as convenient tradecraft devices and just dumped them when necessary, for example by putting Misha in boarding school. However, there was clearly a very loving and altruistic side to her. She was very devoted to her friends, unless they were purged by Stalin, but that was her honed survival instinct coming to the fore. She retained very strong feelings for first husband Rudy and her various spy lovers and other husbands even after the initial passion had left those relationships. An incredible ability to compartmentalize the various aspects of her life was demonstrated throughout as well as unbelievable time management skills. It is an interesting thought experiment to try and imagine what kind of a person she would have been in today’s world. This is certainly up there with his other works and very well read by the author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pat Chester
- 2022-01-13
This was an excellent read.
I was drawn into Ursula's life from the get go. Ben Macintyre wrote her story so that I could put myself in Agent Sonya's shoes, in her time and place. So that though I know what she did was wrong, I could empathize with many of her decisions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!