Redwood
The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy

Quotes

“I grab each new book by Ben Macintyre and read it as fast as possible. He has a rare ability to turn history and espionage upside down and give us true, colorful stories that astound us as they draw us in. Redwood might be his best. Given the current war in Iran, it is certainly his most timely.”—John Grisham

“An author of thrilling spy histories par excellence, Macintyre takes readers into post-Revolutionary Iran where Islamists and leftists, once allies against imperialism, turn on each other—and where a Russian agent, unable to perform in the bedroom, turns to British intelligence for a cure. The consequences are deadly.”—The New York Times (Editor's Choice)

“Redwood lives up to the attention-grabbing opening scene; I devoured it in a single sitting . . . By all means give Redwood to your father for Christmas, but make sure you read it yourself first: it’s superb.”—The Guardian

“[A]n artfully constructed nonfiction equivalent to one of John le Carré’s most accomplished novels.”—The Wall Street Journal

“The British writer Ben Macintyre has made an illustrious career of taking dusty government archives and transforming them into propulsive nonfiction thrillers. . . . With his latest, Redwood, he has done it again.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[A] timely and remarkable story of Cold War espionage.”—BBC Radio 4

“As in all the best spy stories, what lies at the heart of Redwood, Ben Macintyre’s mesmerising tale of Cold War espionage in Iran, is the human factor. . . . Writing is understanding what makes people tick, and it is his insightful portrayal of the shifting relationship between the two spies—part mutual exploitation, part something akin to friendship—that powers Redwood and holds the attention through the complexities of its political context.”—The Times (UK)

“A crackerjack spy story that only Ben Macintyre could tell so well. He seems to have talked to everyone, and cracked every file, that might shed new light on this remarkable tale.”—Scott Anderson, author of King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation

“Few writers make intelligence history as readable as Ben Macintyre. His latest book follows Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Kuzichkin, whose defection during the Cold War exposed secrets that rippled through Moscow, Tehran and the West during one of the most dangerous periods of the nuclear age.”—Military

“A tangled tale of spy versus spy . . . As ever, Macintyre delivers an improbable but impeccable tale of true espionage.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] riveting real-life thriller . . . Macintyre’s lively espionage saga, full of brush-pasts and dead drops, stands James Bond on his head . . . [A] morally murky tale of manipulation and unforeseen consequences.”—Publishers Weekly

“In his latest book, Redwood, Macintyre moves the action to Iran in the early 1980s, when revolutionary chaos reigned under Ayatollah Khomeini and Western intelligence agencies were eager for any tidbits of information. . . . . Macintyre deftly sketches the personalities of those involved and perfectly captures the paranoia of those times.”—Air Mail

Awards

• The Baillie Gifford Prize