Owen Matthews Libri

An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war - from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.

The new novel from a master of the Cold War thriller . . . 'This is Robert Harris storytelling territory' Daily Mail 'Outstanding' Sunday Times 'Tense, exciting and authentic' Charles Cumming, author of Judas 62 'Stunning' The Times 'Brilliantly plotted' John Sweeney, author of Killer in the Kremlin 'A standout thriller' Financial Times 1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, a radio broadcasts news of the killing of President John F. Kennedy . . . Alexander Vasin's new posting as director of a brutal gulag camp is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced KGB officers are sent to disappear, quietly, and forgotten. But when a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin must decide- run or die. So he runs. With him goes a mysterious prisoner - an individual who might hold the key to an extraordinarily dangerous secret- the identity of who really ordered Kennedy's assassination. Racing from bleak Siberian wastelands to the grey streets of Soviet Moscow, Vasin needs to stay one step ahead of the most ruthless intelligence organization in the world in order to keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. And with his loyalty, morality and patriotic duty tested to the limits, he will face the ultimate choice- fall in line, or die fighting the system . . . Weaving together a critical moment in history with the cut-throat machinations of Soviet politics, this tautly told, nail-bitingly atmospheric novel is a superb Cold War thriller.

'This is Robert Harris storytelling territory and is told with equal panache and authenticity. There could be no higher praise.' Daily Mail One the least known but most terrifying moments in modern history - when the fate of the world lay with a lone, nervous Soviet naval officer one hundred meters under the Caribbean sea - lies at the heart of this breathtaking new Cold War thriller from the author of the acclaimed Black Sun. The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts- for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But it's while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking- Operation Anadyr. As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines - each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads - are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . . .

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE'The most formidable spy in history' IAN FLEMING'His work was impeccable' KIM PHILBY'The spy to end spies' JOHN LE CARRBorn of a German father and a Russian mother, Richard Sorge moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. In the years leading up to and during the Second World War, he became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy. Combining charm with ruthless manipulation, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society. His intelligence proved pivotal to the Soviet counter-offensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war itself. Drawing on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives, this is a major biography of one of the greatest spies who ever lived.

On a midsummer day in 1937, Boris Bibikov kissed his two daughters goodbye and disappeared. One of those girls, Lyudmila, was to fall in love with a tall young foreigner in Moscow at the height of the Cold War and embark on a dangerous and passionate affair. Decades later, a reporter in nineties Moscow, her son Owen Matthews pieces together his grandfather's passage through the harrowing world of Stalin's purges, and tells the story of his parents' Cold War love affair through their heartbreaking letters and memories. Stalin's Children is a raw, vivid memoir about a young man's struggle to understand his parents' lives and the history of the strange country in which they lived.

1961. Hidden deep within the forests of central Soviet Russia is a place that doesn't appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here a community of dedicated scientists, technicians and engineers are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see - 3,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima

Expatrié à Moscou, Roman Lambert s'épanouit dans la jungle postsoviétique des années 1990. Orgies, violence, luxe, corruption : une jouissive métamorphose pour ce jeune Anglais enviant la dépravation de ses nouveaux "amis". Jusqu'à sa rencontre avec Sonia, aussi belle et tragique qu'une peinture du Caravage, et cet acte irréparable, qui précipiteront sa descente aux enfers... Avec ce récit vertigineux, l'auteur remarqué des Enfants de Staline offre une troublante et lucide plongée au coeur de l'âme russe. Fascinant.