Ben Macintyre, Agent Sonya ***

Ben Macintyre writes non-fiction spy stories for general audiences; I previously read The Spy and the Traitor.  He has a talent for building a compelling story, injecting the right amount of context and psychological supposition into the facts of the narrative. However, he covers so broad a territory in Agent Sonya that it undermines the inherent drama.

Agent Sonya is the true story of Ursula Kuczynski, a German Jew who spent a lifetime spying for the Soviet Union. She was recruited as a young (and pregnant) wife in 1930s Shanghai and helped establish spy networks in the Far East, Switzerland, and Britain. Near the end of the Second World War, she was a valuable conduit for intelligence about the British atomic weapons program. She accomplished all of her espionage while raising three children (from three different fathers) and maintaining her cover as a housewife. She ended her career in East Germany as an author of young adult books.

Macintyre efficiently sets the scene for each episode, situating Ursula's adventures in the larger history. For example, he paints a vivid picture of Shanghai during the period of international concessions. But there is just too much material: not only 25 years of clandestine activity from Ursula, but multiple hotbeds of international intrigue (pre-revolutionary China, Japanese-occupied Manchuria, the Spanish Civil War, WWII-era Switzerland, early Cold War Britain) and contact with other infamous and colorful characters. Nearly every chapter includes a story that would benefit from closer attention: a plan to assassinate Hitler, near exposure by a jealous nanny, friendship with the Nazi arms dealer next door in Manchuria. 

It is surprising that Ursula avoids capture for so long given that her father and brother were well-known public communist sympathizers and her first husband a convicted Soviet agent. She also works closely with several different people introduced with claims of importance such as "Alexander Allan Foote is one of the most important, but also one of the most enduringly mysterious, figures in modern espionage history" (p 149). So many important and obvious spies in her orbit!

Macintyre is a strong writer of narrative but less skilled at developing characters. Ursula comes across as cold-blooded in pursuit of her ideals, but she also has loving and sexual relationships with several of her colleagues. She seems drawn to unstable men. I would have liked a better sense of Ursula's personality. (I had this same comment/complaint about The Spy and the Traitor.)