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An Impeccable Spy
- Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
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An Impeccable Spy
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents An Impeccable Spy by Owen Matthews, read by Mike Grady.
Richard Sorge was a man with two homelands. Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union’s most formidable spy.
Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go undercover to find out closely guarded state secrets - his victims willingly shared them. As a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including the Second World War.
His intelligence regarding Operation Barbarossa and Japanese intentions not to invade Siberia in 1941 proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war.
Never before has Sorge’s story been told from the Russian side as well as the German and Japanese.
Owen Matthews takes a sweeping historical perspective and draws on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives - along with testimonies from those who knew and worked with Sorge - to rescue the riveting story of the man described by Ian Fleming as 'the most formidable spy in history'.
Critic reviews
"A fascinating biography. Owen Matthews tells the story of Sorge’s extraordinary life with tremendous verve and expertise and a real talent for mise en scène. Shanghai in the 1930s and prewar Tokyo, Sorge’s stamping grounds, come vividly alive in these pages and the portrait of Sorge himself that emerges is richly authentic." (William Boyd, New Statesman)
"Gloriously readable. Every chapter of Matthews’s superbly researched biography reads like something from an Eric Ambler thriller." (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times)
"A superb biography. Alive to Sorge’s human flaws as much as to his professional competence, and with a salutary vein of anger running through it. More than a hundred books have been written about him and this is undoubtedly the best: detailed, wry, sympathetic and occasionally oddly moving." (Ben Macintyre, The Times)
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What listeners say about An Impeccable Spy
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lacrossejunkey
- 09-06-23
Great narrator voice, intriguing story
While I had a few tiny quibbles with the writing of this book at times, overall it was very good for anyone interested in this genre. The narrator is one of my absolute favorite voices for calm, nighttime listening. Very few moments where the volume changes enough for me to be startled out of semi-nap on my bus ride home (one of my criteria for audiobooks!).
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Jonathan Lowenstein
- 24-12-23
An historical thriller, I loved it.
Some eye opening material about early Russian and German communism. A lesson in spying and great insight into Pre world war Japan and China.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Kendo nagassaki
- 27-05-21
the greatest spy in history
scholarly work on a much overlooked spy..who really saved the soviet union..probably the most important spy in history..his information enabled stalin to move reserves to beat the germans..every school boy should know his name...few do..it is thought it may well have been sorgie who recruited roger Hollis
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth
- 20-11-20
A Gripping Tale
This was the most informative and intriguing spy story I have read. A thrilling read.
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