Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century

Although broken up by slower sections, this is a unique examination of one of the most interesting (and impactful) espionage cases of this last century.

Well-researched, thoroughly-organized and even (at times) entertaining, this is very much worth the read, even if just to gain a perspective on history through one man's eyes. Raynaud and Kostin even appeal to the literary enthusiast, with themes of revenge, solitude and self-grandiosity bringing to question even the smallest of actions (why DO we do what we do?).

Some portions of the book are a little slower than others, but if you are not totally engrossed a third of the way in, well, this clearly is not the right genre: because the hook gets set deep. And, you know, after reading it, I'd even read it again (which is really saying something).

Short Review: Farewell was a Russian KGB agent that leaked thousands of pages of secret documents to the French. Arguably this leaked information (and its use by Reagan and his security team) did more to bring down the Soviet Union than any other single action. The documents opened up the full extent of USSR's espionage and technical secrets. This allow the US to feed the USSR false research leads and force them into an arms race that the USSR could not afford.

The book is very detailed and not incredibly well written. 1/2 is background on Farewell and those around him. The other half is discussion of what really went on and how it was all done. It was worth reading, but it could have been a better book. Shows that real spycraft is just as weird as some of the John le Carré novels. And at the same time very boring.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/farewell/