Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century by Sergei Kostin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Vladimir Vetrov, a high-ranking KGB spy in Moscow during the Cold War, was assigned the code name 'Farewell' by the French intelligence service that recruited him. This is the true story of Vetrov, presented with balance and objectivity, and the Farewell dossier handed to U.S. President Reagan during the Ottawa G7 Summit by Francois Mitterrand, the newly elected president of France. A 2009 French film was inspired by the 1997 French book, while an updated account was translated into English in 2011, a quarter-century after Vetrov’s death.
"Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century" is an otherwise pacy thriller that occasionally falls victim to its own verbosity. Yet, the writers succeed in painting a vivid picture of Vetrov from the accounts of his family, acquaintances and handlers. Does the KGB discover the mole? No spoilers here, go read the book.
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