Kai Birdis an award-winning historian and journalist. Executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography, he is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, of McGeorge and William Bundy, Robert Ames, and President Jimmy Carter. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for American Prometheus- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin), which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer. His work has been honored with the BIO Award for his significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. He has also written about the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He lives in New York City and Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Goldmark.
New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Notable Book
A Christian Science Monitor Top Ten Book, 2014
New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
Entertainment Weekly's Best Spy Book of 2014
A Daily Beast Best Biography of 2014
An Apple Top 10 Biography of 2014
“A rich nuanced portrait of a man who, in the CIA's term, had a
high tolerance for ambiguity...One of the best accounts we have of
how espionage really works.”
—Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times Book Review
“Cool and authoritative…The book’s understated pleasures come from
reading a pro writing about a pro. Mr. Bird has a dry style;
watching him compose a book is like watching a robin build a nest.
Twig is entwined with twig until a sturdy edifice is constructed.
No flourishes are required …. Mr. Bird’s style is ideal for his
subject.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“A well-researched, engagingly presented biography...The Good Spy
is a fascinating book that sheds much-needed light on one of the
murkier corners of CIA—and Middle Eastern—history.”
—Max Boot, Wall Street Journal
“Full of great morsels and details… Bird has found in Ames a
wonderful new subject…. The Good Spy succeeds on the basis of
Bird’s considerable research skills, his interviews with
intelligence officials, his access to Ames’s letters home and,
above all, his ability to spot and put together an engrossing
biography.”
–Washington Post
“Bird captures the acrid taste of regional politics and offers a
perceptive portrayal of the internal workings and interplay of
personalities within the CIA at the time…An enthralling read.”
–Houston Chronicle
“[Bird] spent years researching this terrific biography of
one of America’s most important covert operatives. It was worth
every minute.”
–Seattle Times
“Engrossing…This absorbing book suggests that even the best of
intentions, and the best of spies, aren’t enough to bridge the
chasms in the Middle East.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Riveting…[Bird] relates fascinating details (drawn from interviews
with some 30 retired CIA and Mossad officers) about the
culture and practices of the agency, including the life-and-death
implications of designating an individual as either a ‘source,’ a
‘recruit’ or an ‘asset.’”
–San Francisco Gate
“With its pacy narrative, exotic locales and colourful cast of CIA
and Mossad agents, Palestinian and Iranian revolutionaries,
Lebanese operators and even a winner of the Miss Universe contest,
the book has all the ingredients of a first-class thriller. Kai
Bird writes well enough to be a novelist, too, but his sentences
have the additional virtue of being true.”
–Times Literary Supplement
“In his riveting, illuminating account of Ames' life and ultimate
death in the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut, Bird pulls back the
thick black curtain on the world of clandestine intelligence
affairs — a world that turns out to be more blazer-and-pen than
cloak-and-dagger, though no less engrossing — to tell the story of
one individual's good work in a not-so-good system. A”
–Entertainment Weekly
“One of the best nonfiction books ever written about the West’s
involvement in the Arab world.”
—The Spectator (UK)
“All of this is engrossing for those fascinated by the machinations
of the people and politics of the Middle East…But this book should
appeal to a wider audience. It underlines the need for
intelligence-gathering by humans as well as by machines, and
illustrates the gap between spying and policy.”
–The Economist
One of 2014's best books so far. “A lucid, thorough, fascinating
biography.”
–TIME.com
“It is a reflection of the drama of this patch of history as well
as Bird’s skill in rendering it that the book is as compelling a
read as most spy novels.”
–National Interest
“Kai Bird has written a riveting biography… This intriguing book
shares many exciting exploits of Ames’ life as a spy, but most
captivating was his poignant relationship with Ali Hassan
Salameh.”
–Jewish Journal (Massachusetts)
“Painstakingly researched...In addition to being an admiring
biography of a uniquely gifted CIA operative, The Good
Spy reminds us of those long-ago days when some sort of
resolution was considered even a remote possibility.”
–Highbrow Magazine
“More exciting than le Carré’s George Smiley or Fleming’s James
Bond, Bird recreates the life of CIA superspy Robert Ames… Bird’s
meticulous account of Ames’s career amid an ongoing Mideast climate
of caution and suspicion is one of the best books on the American
intelligence community.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“A moving biography within a balanced presentation of the complex
diplomacy over the Palestinian quest for statehood and Israeli need
for security.”
—Library Journal (Starred Review)
“A poignant tribute to a CIA Middle East operative who helped
get the Palestinians and Israelis to talk to each other—and died
for it.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Kai Bird has produced a compelling and complex narrative that must
be read on many levels—including as a detailed account of the
immense influence that a truly good man can have on an agency as
cynical as the CIA, and as a reminder of a myriad of losses.
Robert Ames did not live long enough to get what he most
desperately wanted—a real peace in the Middle East. And
America's intelligence agencies no longer seem as welcoming to
agents with the wisdom, vision and integrity that Ames
exemplified.”
—Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Price of
Power, The Dark Side of Camelot, and Chain of Command
“Kai Bird has delivered two miracles—the best day-by-day account of
a secret intelligence career in the CIA, and the best book about
the murderous intelligence war between Israel and her enemies with
America smack in the middle. For years Robert Ames—The Good
Spy—tried to nudge both sides toward peace until he picked the
wrong day to visit the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and was killed by a
car bomb. Bird has written a powerful and revealing story that
leaves the reader with a troubling question—how did America get
trapped in this war it can do nothing to end?”
—Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Intelligence Wars
and The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA
“The Good Spy gives us the CIA up close and personal—the intricate
dance of recruiting ‘assets,’ the bureaucratic maneuverings,
the family compromises. But because Ames was a Mideast
specialist his biography also becomes a knowing history of that
region's political failures and relentless descent into violence.
Well reported, even-handed, compelling reading -- one of the
best books ever written about the CIA.”
—Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author of Los Alamos and
The Good German
"Beautifully written and researched, The Good Spy is the best book
I've ever read on espionage. It perfectly captures the CIA at its
best. What's more, it's a book you can't put down, right to its
tragic end. I need to add this: while Bob Ames's career and mine
crossed paths over the years, it's Kai Bird who has finally put the
story together for me. Reading this, I wondered at times if Kai
somehow pulled off a black bag operation to get into the Agency
archives."
—Robert Baer, former CIA operative and New York Times bestselling
author of See No Evil
“Kai Bird has unearthed an astonishing amount of detail about
Robert Ames, the CIA, and U.S. spy operations in the Middle East.
His book could not be more timely in showing us the perils and
advantages of clandestine actions in the name of national security.
The Good Spy gives new meaning to the adage that truth can be
stranger than fiction.”
—Robert Dallek, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller An
Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963
"If John le Carré were a nonfiction specialist, he surely would
feel the lure of writing the story that is at the heart of The Good
Spy. Kai Bird works the seam between history and
espionage. He has produced an arresting book—one that is
knowing, and masterful in its rendition of a time when the United
States cast a huge shadow across the Arab world. Robert Ames,
the spy in Kai Bird's title, is a figure of unusual poignancy
because his guile and innocence run side by side.”
—Fouad Ajami, Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford
University, and author of The Syrian Rebellion
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