The Lost Spy
 

The Lost Spy on Radio and Television

on MSNBC's "Morning Joe"


On Nancy Pearl’s Book Picks, KUOW (NPR in Seattle)


Praise for Andrew Meier’s The Lost Spy

“It began in 1912, when the Wobblies came to Willimantic, the troublous New England mill town where Cy Oggins was an idealistic schoolboy. It ended in a Moscow side street in 1947 -- a death as cruel and unusual as any in the history of the USSR. The meteoric Russianist Andrew Meier has given us a book about the ideological delirium that possessed the planet between those two dates, drawing us into a labyrinth peopled by ghosts and dreamers and carnivorous chameleons.” Martin Amis, author of House of Meetings

“a brilliantly crafted account of true belief and its many terrible betrayals”The Wall Street Journal

The Lost Spy is a jewel--one of those great lost spy stories from the cold war but this one is special: the story of the shadowy life and killing of Stalin's American agent and victim. As gripping as a thriller, The Lost Spy is part history, part biography, and part quest. Meier is a born storyteller and his tale is a labyrinth of deception and bizarre characters, a strange secret world unveiled, and the end of Oggins is so brutal and extraordinary that the sinister degeneracy of the Evil Empire never ceases to shock me all over again.” Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Young Stalin

“utterly fascinating, a sad and sinuous study of true belief carried beyond all reason”The Los Angeles Times

The Lost Spy is a masterful work of historical recovery and fascinating story brilliantly told” Orlando Figes, author of A People’s Tragedy

“A fast-paced detective story... The Lost Spy thrills to the end”NPR

“Andrew Meier's biography of Isaiah Oggins is a beautifully written account of a tragic life in a tragic world of hope and intrigue that ended in failure. Meier's book adds a dimension to our understanding of Soviet spy operations before World War II and its ruthless treatment of an American recruit.” Robert Dallek, author of Nixon and Kissinger

“a well-written and rewarding romp through the international communist movement of the 1920s and '30s”The Washington Post

The Lost Spy is an espionage thriller of the first rank -- but it is also a great deal more than that. While he traces Isaiah Oggins's odd and twisting trajectory from Morningside Heights to Lubyanka Prison, Andrew Meier also captures the idealism, betrayal, and tragedy that marked so much of the last century's history. It is a fascinating and haunting tale by a wise and sensitive author.” Sean Wilentz, Princeton University

“a journey into the labyrinth where people lose their way, their souls, their minds, and their lives—the heart, in other words, of the best spy fiction”Bookforum