Synopses & Reviews
Edward Snowden is one of the most extraordinary whistleblowers in history. A precocious computer specialist who rapidly rose through the ranks of the U.S. intelligence community, Snowden was only twenty-nine years old when he exposed the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program of citizens, which collects and stores people’s phone calls, emails, and contacts. Forced to flee the country to escape federal prosecutors, he remains a controversial figure in exile, having been called, by turns, a traitor, a hero, a dissident, a patriot.
Now, in these pages, award-winning Guardian correspondent Luke Harding takes us inside Snowden’s story, which has all the action and intrigue of a spy novel—yet is too astonishing not to be true. The Snowden Files is an essential investigation of the interplay between one man and the government, between national security and the right to privacy, and how the far-reaching capabilities of digital surveillance affect us all.
Review
"A super-readable, thrillerish account of the events surrounding the reporting of the documents....Harding has done an amazing—and speedy—job of assembling material from a wide variety of sources and turning it into an exciting account." The London Review of Books
Review
"A newsworthy, must-read book about what prompted Edward Snowden to blow the whistle on his former employer, the National Security Agency, and what likely awaits him for having done so....Whether you view Snowden’s act as patriotic or treasonous, this fast-paced, densely detailed book is the narrative of first resort." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Engaging and lucid....A gripping read....Harding is a gifted writer....The strength of Harding's book is its ability to bring Snowden's story to life while elucidating the contours of a much larger set of issues....In rendering the complicated comprehensible in an entertaining way, Harding's book provides an important public service." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"[Snowden’s] story is one of the most compelling in the history of American espionage....The Snowden Files, by Luke Harding, a correspondent for the Guardian newspaper, which broke the initial Snowden story, is the first to assemble the sequence of events in a single volume. The book captures the drama of Snowden’s operation in often-cinematic detail....Harding has delivered a clearly written and captivating account of the Snowden leaks and their aftermath." The Washington Post
Review
"Reads like a le Carré novel crossed with something by Kafka....A fast-paced, almost novelistic narrative....[The book] gives readers...a succinct overview of the momentous events of the past year....Leave[s] readers with an acute understanding of the serious issues involved." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
About the Author
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is the author of Mafia State and co-author of WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011) and The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken (1997), nominated for the Orwell Prize. The film rights to WikiLeaks were sold to Dreamworks and the film, "The Fifth Estate," came out in 2013. His books have been translated into 13 languages. Luke lives in England with his wife and their two children.