The Illegals

Shortlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2026 'Absolutely fascinating' Andrew Marr AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 AN i PAPER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 'A brilliant historical investigation that's as gripping as a Le Carré novel' Tom Burgis In 2010, two decades after the Cold War had ended, ten Russian spies were arrested in America, having hidden their true identities from their friends, neighbours and even their children. They were part of a spy programme that had begun nearly a century earlier. These deep-cover missions - some remarkable feats of espionage, others high-profile failures - could last for decades. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, and newly-discovered archival material, The Illegals is a page-turning tour de force, that shines new light on the long arc of the Soviet experiment and its messy aftermath - and on how that hidden history shaped Russia and the West.

Shaun Walker is a foreign correspondent for The Guardian, currently covering central and eastern Europe. He was the Guardian's Moscow Correspondent between 2013 and 2018, prior to which he spent six years as Moscow Correspondent for The Independent. He studied Russian and Soviet History at Oxford University.