Acting on his own, furious at the fascists of the Spanish Civil War, poultry farmer Juan Pujol sought to work for the British in World War II but was rebuffed. Not to be deterred, he sought acceptance as an agent for the Germans, who accepted him as a pro-Nazi operative. The British then accepted him as a double agent, Agent Garbo, and he fooled the Germans with a supposed network of informants in the UK. Meanwhile, the British had turned him into the centerpiece of the multifaceted efforts in 1944 to deceive the Germans as to the date and location of Operation Overlord, the Normandy invasion. Employing archival material and interviews, Talty (Empire of Blue Water) gives readers a popular account of Agent Garbo's vital work, with details of dangerous espionage and stressful daily life in wartime Spain and England, along with the ironic humor that one finds in wartime. Talty, rather briefly, follows Pujol's life after the war. Verdict This work complements Pujol's own book, written with Nigel West, Operation Garbo (1986) and is recommended for a new generation of espionage and World War II intelligence buffs.-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
"The exciting, improbable adventures of a young Spanish spy who managed to become Britain's most effective tool in deceiving Hitler. A lively, rollicking good read." --Kirkus Reviews"Epic intelligence coups of WWII unreel in this colorful caper saga. Talty's Pujol is a captivating character with a talent for operatic confabulation, but Garbo is just the alluring lead in massive deceptions that the author likens to Hollywood productions, complete with rubber tanks, fake ships, and a Montgomery impersonator. The result is a rollicking story of wartime eccentrics and their labyrinthine mind games." --Publishers Weekly, starred "Agent Garbo is the fascinating story of a man whose wit, cunning, and steely nerves made the Allied victory possible in World War II. Stephan Talty's unsurpassed research brings forth one of the war's greatest agents in a must-read book for those who think they know all the great World War II stories." --Gregory Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500
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