Snowden Files (Harding) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Reads like a le Carre 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 - New York Times


[Snowden’s] story is one of the most compelling in the history of American espionage. . . . Although the book is billed as “the inside story of the world’s most wanted man,” there is no indication that Harding had direct contact with his subject. Instead, it reads more like the inside account of Snowden’s interactions with the Guardian. The details drawn from those encounters are fascinating, if not always illuminating.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.
Greg Miller - Washington Post


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


The Snowden Files, the first book on what British journalist Luke Harding calls ‘the biggest intelligence leak in history,’ is a readable and thorough account. The narrative is rich in newsroom details, reflecting Harding's inside access as a correspondent for the London-based Guardian newspaper, which broke the story.... The writer deserves unqualified praise for fueling the debate on privacy that Snowden so hoped to ignite.
Newsday


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.
London Review of Books


Recounts the incredible story of how Snowden becomes angry about the abuses he says he witnessed inside the system, resolves to pull off a stunning electronic heist by downloading the NSA’s and its partners’ most sensitive files, and gives them to journalists he has persuaded to meet him in Hong Kong. Harding captures nicely the moment when the Guardian pushes the button on its first Snowden story, an intense, adrenaline-filled cocktail of high-minded journalistic zeal and the sheer thrill of publishing sensitive information.”
Financial Times


The telling is sympathetic towards Snowden.... And while the story sometimes lacks in insight from those directly involved and in the analysis that will be possible as we get more temporal distance from the events, Harding provides crucial context and history for the story. His compilation and synthesis of the records is useful for a reader in need of a primer.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) A newsworthy, must-read book about what prompted Edward Snowden to blow the whistle on his former employer, the National Security Agency.... Harding closes with the thought that Snowden may have no other home for some time to come.... Whether you view Snowden's act as patriotic or treasonous, this fast-paced, densely detailed book is the narrative of first resort.
Kirkus Reviews