Agent Garbo tells the story of Juan Pujol, a Spaniard who during World War 2 became one of the German intelligence apparatus' most important agents. Which was an issue because he was in fact a double-agent, one of the many elements of the XX (Double Cross) system of deception and counter-intelligence used by the British intelligence services, and probably the most important element of that network.

I've read a number of books that cover similar ground (Kahn's Seizing the Enigma, MacIntyre's Agent Zigzag, Double Cross, and Operation Mincemeat), and so I had a pretty good understanding of the background, and wanted to learn more about Juan Pujol himself. Especially in comparison to MacIntyre's Double Cross, I feel like there was little new detail covered (other than Aracelli), and a lot of things that were redundant and less informative than in other areas. I second the comment about how the narrative gives us lots of discussion of the overall operational picture, but less about how Pujol actually crafted his network and distinguished its "members". Additionally, Talty doesn't discuss some of the intrigues and machinations of the Abwehr and how those affected their interpretations (MacIntyre argued that Roenne very possibly knew all the intelligence from the XX Committee was fake and pushed it forward because he was one of the many ardent anti-Nazis in the Abwehr and wanted to see the Germans lose the war).

It's well-written and a fast-paced story that does a good job of presenting the information available, but if you had to read one story about this caper, I'd tell you to just go ahead and read MacIntyre's XX Committee, which does a better job of presenting the work of the XX Committee and giving you more inforamtion about the agents themselves (including a few like Johnny Jebsen and Dusko Popov who only appear briefly here). ( )

Nicely done... But there were several times where the author assumed that I knew more about WWII than I did.

It's a good supplement to Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear books though. As is Imitation Game. That's how you know you're in to a fictional series too deeply- when non-fiction is a supplement. ( )

An excellent real-life spy story. I was not aware of the importance of Garbo to the allied effort. it seems like maybe they couldn't have done it without him. And what a character he was to boot! Highly recommended for WWII history buffs or espionage historians. ( )

Solidly written World War II story of espionage that answered some questions for me but raised others. I enjoyed reading about the imaginary spy network conjured up by Juan Pujol Garcia and his Allied handlers, but I ended the book wanting to know more about the mechanics: how did Pujol make decisions about who his subagents should be? How did they make sure that his Welsh fascist sounded different from his Indian fanatic or his Greek seaman? What special flair did Pujol bring to the messages to make them so unique and convincing to the Nazis? Maybe this information wasn't available or has already been covered elsewhere, but more specific examples of Pujol's imagination would have been more interesting and also helped bolster Talty's case that Garbo was a key part of the Allied deception strategy prior to D-Day. It also would've made his part of the operation more interesting -- tales of wireless messages being sent seems a little ho-hum next to stories of dummy aircraft, sermons about lowered morality (due to the influx of GIs), and other "evidence" of an imaginary US army. Still worth reading, though, and an impetus to more research. ( )

The first research project I ever did in high school was on deception campaigns in WW2. I'd read a little bit about them before, but I didn't realize exactly how much deception was involved in the Allied efforts against Nazi Germany. Since then, I've read just about everything I could find on the subject, and no matter how much I read, I always seem to learn something new.

That was certainly true of Agent Garbo. I had, of course, read about Garbo's operation -- how he had a "spy network" of dozens of fictitious "agents" who fed him "intelligence" that he sent on to the Abwehr. Of course, all of those efforts were coordinated by the British XX Committee, which oversaw all of the double agents operating against the Germans, and they were all absolutely essential to the eventual Allied victory in Europe.

But there was a lot about the man I didn't know. I'd never read of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, or his failed businesses, or his propensity for exaggeration and his incredible imagination. I also didn't realize that his wife was just as responsible for his work with British intelligence as he was -- she's the one who finally got him in with the British government, after he'd tried repeatedly.

Talty's book is well researched, and well written. This is no dry history text, or boring biography; it is a living story, told as well as any spy thriller ever written. So much of it seems too incredible to believe; truth really is stranger than fiction.

This is a book that I would heartily recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about wartime intelligence in World War 2, or anyone who just wants to read a fascinating account of the life of an extraordinary man. ( )