Book Review: Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre

“As the war raced to its bloody finale, Ursula was swept up in an exhausting whirlwind of espionage, child-rearing, and housework: on any given day she might be coordinating intelligence gathered from her father, brother, Tom, the chemist, and others in her network, gathering intelligence from the Tool missions, while hanging out the washing, doing the dishes, and struggling to keep the domestic ship afloat at Avenue Cottage.”

Ben Macintyre, Agent Sonya

Review:

I somewhat blindly picked this book up after reading Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. Though it was quite interesting, the subject, Ursula Kaczynski codenamed ‘Sonya’,  covered so much of the WWII-era Europe that I struggled to keep track of it all. 

To her neighbors, Ursula seemed like a typical housewife. In actuality, she was an intelligence officer working for the Soviet Union. Though several agencies went after her, ultimately, it was her gentle appearance that kept her from danger. That’s not to say there were never any close calls. Her career as a spy and her life in general are what the book explores in detail. 

Listening to the first few chapters, I honestly didn’t know what I was getting myself into given the way the atmosphere was being built. Once Ursula’s story found its footing I was more interested, though I still found the (written) narration chaotic. I didn’t get as much out of it as I’d hoped because of this. 

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• It was an interesting look at an individual working for the Soviet Union during this time.
• It kept a decent pace.

What I didn’t like:

• The story often skirted off to often irrelevant topics that had little (or nothing) to do with Ursula.
• I feel like an early chapter of the book was trying to set a scandalous tone that didn’t need to be set.

Afterthoughts:

This was the March nonfiction group read with The Global Book Nook!

Where to buy the book: