There are so many fascinating stories that occurred during WWII and I appreciate the rigorous research and fact gathering that is required to do a story like this justice. Wow. George Koval, an American born son of Russian Jewish parents returns to Russia to follow his socialist values. While there, he is recruited by the Soviet Army to act as a spy and subsequently returned to the US, where he was drafted and recruited to work no the Manhattan Project. While working at the site, Koval funneled extensive secret information to the Soviets and following the war he got out unscathed. An incredible sleeper agent story, told with profound detail and intrigue.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley & Simon Schuster for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Alas, I didn't finish this book and won't be reviewing it on my website or elsewhere. I can't remember my reason for giving up on it, sorry!

An infiltration of the Manhattan Project by a Russian spy should be fascinating. Sleeper Agent tries to be compelling, but doesn't quite get there.

George Koval, raised as an all-American boy in Iowa, returns to Russia with his parents after the Russian Revolution, convinced that with the Tsar gone, the country would be on the right track and the anti-Semitism would be tamped down. Alas, they were to be disappointed, but that is another story.

George, a brilliant student, is recruited by Soviet intelligence to return to the US, and he does. At first, not a whole lot happens, but eventually, he is tapped to join the teams at Los Alamos and work on the creation of the first nuclear weapon.

He's a diligent spy, happy to be a patriot for his parents' country, and provides his handlers with the information he has stolen. But it isn't a great life, being a spy in the middle of this particular setting, and he is under enormous stress. There are a ton of details about everything in this book, at times to its detriment. This is not one of those times.

George, knowing that it's about time to wrap up his stay, flees back to the USSR in 1948, well before the US even knew he was a problem. But as can be the case when spies come in from the cold, he is neither celebrated nor the recipient of great wealth.

It's a five star story, but a three star read. Too often the story gets bogged down in minutiae, times at which I was hoping for fleshing out different parts of the narrative. It falls a bit flat comparatively to other books of this nature.

Three out of five stars.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the reading copy.

I recently read Anne Sebba’s excellent biography of Ethel Rosenberg. Rosenberg, with her husband Julius, were famously convicted of being Soviet agents and killed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison on June 19, 1953. The Rosenbergs were accused of being integral to a ring of spies who stole secrets of the US atomic bomb program and passed them on to the Soviets.

While the Rosenbergs are the most famous of those involved in World War II atomic-weapon spying for the USSR, Anne Hagedorn’s subject is possibly the most unknown.

It was clear after World War II that atomic secrets of the Manhattan Project had been passed on to the Soviets, allowing them to develop their own bombs years before scientists predicted. The hunt to unmask those involved was on, revealing a ring that gave the Soviets information about bomb development at Los Alamos. But there was more than Los Alamos to the Manhattan Project, and George Koval, the subject of this book, was posted by the Army to Oak Ridge and Dayton, working as a safety officer, which allowed him free access to nearly every part of both top-secret facilities. Koval passed on to the Soviets key information about polonium-based bomb initiators, which they used in their bombs.

Koval had the distinction among the atomic secret-passers of being an actual Russian—but also an American. Koval’s parents had left Russia before the Russian Revolution to escape virulent anti-Semitism. They settled in Sioux City, Iowa, and George had a typical midwestern upbringing. His parents were thrilled when the Tsar was ousted in the Russian Revolution and the new regime promised an end to anti-semitism. In the 1930s, anti-semitism was on the rise in the US, and the Kovals decided to return to the USSR with their young sons, enticed by promises of a living paradise in the newly-created Jewish Autonomous Region. (Given its location on the border with Manchuria, they shouldn’t have been so naïve, but that’s another story.)

George Koval was a brilliant student of chemistry when World War II broke out, and he agreed to the call of Soviet military intelligence to return to the US on a “business trip.” That trip lasted eight years and a successful infiltration of the Manhattan Project. George was perceptive enough to know that his cover was thin, and he fled back to the USSR in 1948, well before the feds suspected him.

In the USSR, Koval struggled, as anti-semitism had made a big comeback. Few knew of his key role in spying for the USSR, and he was never recognized in his lifetime. US authorities, doubtless embarrassed by their failure to suspect him until he was long gone, didn’t publicize him either. Now Hagedorn is telling his story and encouraging more research into Koval and his ring.

Hagedorn has done a great deal of research to put together a picture of Koval, his life and his spy career. But there just doesn’t seem to be enough information to make Koval truly come to life on the page. Then it’s almost anti-climactic when Koval leaves the US before any pursuit and lives a small, unrecognized life in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia.

While this book can’t be compared to Ben Macintyre’ s ability to make riveting stories of little-known characters in spydom, it’s still worth reading to learn about this previously-unknown piece of espionage history.

This book promised to be “perfect for Ben Macintyre fans.” I loved Macintyre’s <i>A Spy Among Friends</i> and <i>The Spy and the Traitor</i>, so I had high expectations. They were not met.

This isn’t a terrible book, and if I hadn’t ever read a Ben Macintyre true spy story I may have given this a higher rating. However, this is definitely second-tier compared to him. The presentation is dry, the reconstruction of many events is not very tight/detailed, and the Amazon blurb gives away practically all the important information. I feel like the author just didn’t have enough available information about this spy to write a compelling book. On a positive note, it does provide interesting glimpses into the Manhattan project and the Red Scare.

I don’t usually mind a dry history book, but Macintyre has spoiled me when it comes to spy stories, and so this one just didn’t cut it for me.

The Atomic Spy Who Got Away by Ann Hegedorn tells the story of George Koval an American born Sioux City Iowa to Russian Jewish parents. Born into a left leaning family his childhood was the American story in the 1920's including a life long passion for baseball. But with the Depression of the 1930's the Koval family felt victimized for being Jews and fled to The Soviet Union using a US family passport. Finally they came to the Jewish Autonomous Region in Eastern USSR along the boarder with China.
This is not an espionage story fiction or non fiction with guns, sex or martinis. It also does not have an incredible escape plot like Ben MacIntyre books. Yet all the same, I enjoyed this book for the story of a Soviet living in the US going to the best university and absorbing public and secret information. See the recent book by Svetlana Lokhova, The Spy who Changed History to learn about the large number of Soviet legally in the US attending the top universities while gleaming top secret technical information for The Motherland's war efforts.
After two years in the Autonomous Region, Koval moved to Moscow trained in Chemistry at the Mundelein Institute, married Mila and was recruited by the GRU to go back to America alone.
In America he studied at Columbia University and during the war was pulled from the US Army and into special traing where he was assigned to Heath and Safety at Oak Ridge and then Monsanto in Dayton where Polonium was manufactured for the bomb. These jobs gave him complete access to the entire facilities and knowledge of what materials were being produced. He was able to transfer this information to spies who got the info to the USSR.. this information shortened the time for the Sovits to get their own bomb.
After the war and the Soviets surprising the world with the explosion of their own bomb, a spy hunt started in the US.. koval realized he needed to leave and return to Moscow after serving the GRU for nine years in the US. Mila was there waiting and he lived a long life as a loyal citizen in the USSR without fame or prestige. Ironically the US was still searching for him and in old age with little money he went to the US Embassy to enquire about applying for Social Security!
I believe this bookis also of interest today when we consider the large number of Chinese students attending US universities. Are we niave and making the same mistake of 90 years ago?

An interesting read on a spy during the Cold War after WW2. It was a good read about an interesting point of time in history.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.