From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll comes The Achilles Trap, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein. This deeply researched and news-breaking investigation explores how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the justification was clear: Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, allegedly possessed weapons of mass destruction posing a grave danger to the world. The absence of such weapons led to scrutiny of the political and intelligence failures that precipitated the invasion, occupation, and ensuing civil war. A key unresolved question: Why did Saddam give the false impression that he possessed WMDs?

The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the complex web of individuals, power plays, and geopolitics that culminated in America's war with Iraq. Coll traces Saddam's rise to power in 1979 and the birth of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program, delving into the dictator's inner circle. He vividly portrays diplomats, scientists, family members, and generals—all beholden to a leader responsible for widespread suffering.

CIA and presidential administrations repeatedly failed to understand Saddam's paranoia, resentments, and inconsistencies. Utilizing unpublished sources, interviews with participants, and Saddam's own transcripts and audio files, Coll provides an unparalleled portrait of a man who believed the world was against him.

The Achilles Trap is a work of great historical significance, offering a definitive account of the corruptions of power, diplomatic deceptions, and personal vanities that led to avoidable statecraft errors, resulting in immeasurable human suffering and a permanently altered political landscape.

Set in the dark world of international espionage, from London to Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret: the gripping and suspenseful story of a young woman who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long overdue finale of a covert special op.

The young English narrator of Lea Carpenter's dazzling new novel has grown up unhappily in London, dreaming of escape, pretending to be someone else and obsessed with a locked private garden. On the eve of her twenty-first birthday, at a party near that garden, she meets its charismatic and mysterious new owner, Marcus, thirty-three years older, who sweeps her off her feet. Before long they are married at his finca in Mallorca, and at last she has escaped into a new role – but at what price?

On their honeymoon in Croatia, Marcus reveals there is something she can do for him—a plan is in place and she can help with "a favor." This turns out to be posing as an art advisor to a family on Cap Ferret, where Marcus asks her to simply "listen." A helicopter deposits her at a remote, highly guarded and lavishly appointed compound on a spit of land in the Atlantic. It's presided over by an enigmatic, charming patriarch Edouard, along with his wife Dasha, children Nikki and Felix, and populated by a revolving cast of other guests—some suspicious, some intriguing, perhaps none, like her, what they seem.

A luxury train speeding towards Moscow and a date with destiny.

A CIA plane downed in the jungles of the Golden Triangle.

A Nazi hoard entombed in the remote mountains of South-West Poland.

A missing treasure, the eighth wonder of the world, lost for seven decades.

One Russian magnate's dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos. Only Frances Coffey, the CIA's most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special. Enter Argylle, a troubled agent with a tarnished past who may just have the skills to take on one of the most powerful men in the world. If only he can save himself first...

A spellbinding, sweeping novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.

Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara's family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.

Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth.

A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an 'Asia for Asians.' Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them.

Spanning years of pain and triumph, told from the perspectives of four unforgettable characters, The Storm We Made is a dazzling saga about the horrors of war; the fraught relationships between the colonized and their oppressors, and the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake.