The CIA Book Club
the best-kept secret of the cold war
$52.00
- Hardcover
384 pages
- Release Date
25 August 2025
Summary
Smuggling Words: The CIA’s Secret Literary War
‘Entertaining and vivid… This is a gripping account of an intriguing and little-known Cold War moment’ OBSERVER
‘Reads like a thriller’ THE SUN
The astonishing story of the ten million books that were smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
For almost five decades after the Second World War, Europe was divided by the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. The Iron Curtai…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780008495121 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0008495122 |
| Author: | Charlie English |
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Imprint: | William Collins |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 25 August 2025 |
| Weight: | 480g |
| Dimensions: | 240mm x 159mm x 38mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
‘Vibrant, beautifully researched and exciting… a real pleasure to read – a finely written page-turner full of well-researched stories of smuggling, intrigue and survival’
Guardian
‘This covert CIA programme to undermine censorship in the Soviet bloc is the subject of Charlie English’s impressively detailed account… English does a first-rate job in piecing together this patchily known story in efficient, pacy prose’
Spectator
‘Entertaining and vivid… This is a gripping account of an intriguing and little-known Cold War moment’
Observer
‘Gripping…an extraordinarily detailed account of how the [CIA] Book Club set about capturing hearts and minds’
Daily Mail
‘Reads like a thriller’
The Sun
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK SMUGGLERS OF TIMBUKTU
‘An exemplary work of investigative journalism that is also a wonderfully colourful book of history and travel’
William Dalrymple, Observer, Books of the Year
‘This spellbinding record of Timbuktu’s intellectual heritage blends accounts of European explorers to the ancient city with contemporary reportage’
New Yorker
‘A piece of postmodern historiography of quite extraordinary sophistication and ingenuity [written with] exceptional delicacy and restraint’
TLS
‘Part reportage, part history, part romance and wholly gripping a riveting read’
Sunday Times
About The Author
Charlie English
Charlie English is the former head of international news at the Guardian. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is the author of The Snow Tourist and the widely acclaimed The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu. He lives in London.
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