IT BEGAN WITH A TANTALIZING, ANONYMOUS EMAIL: “I AM A SENIOR MEMBER OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.”

What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. Edward Snowden was a 29-year-old computer genius working for the National Security Agency when he shocked the world by exposing the near-universal mass surveillance programs of the United States government. His whistleblowing has shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, and generated a passionate public debate on the dangers of global monitoring and the threat to individual privacy.

In a tour de force of investigative journalism that reads like a spy novel, award-winning Guardian reporter Luke Harding tells Snowden’s astonishing story—from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend in Honolulu carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of his secret-spilling in Hong Kong, to his battle for asylum and his exile in Moscow. For the first time, Harding brings together the many sources and strands of the story—touching on everything from concerns about domestic spying to the complicity of the tech sector—while also placing us in the room with Edward Snowden himself. The result is a gripping insider narrative—and a necessary and timely account of what is at stake for all of us in the new digital age.

盧剋•哈丁（Luke Harding），英國新聞記者、作傢，畢業於牛津大學，供職英國《衛報》。《衛報》是斯諾登首選的消息發布平颱，也是全球唯一全程報道斯諾登事件的媒體，《衛報》采訪團隊對斯諾登做瞭100多小時的麵對麵采訪，幾百萬字的采訪筆記。而盧剋•哈丁是“斯諾登事件”采訪團隊核心成員，《衛報》指定的本書撰寫人。

盧剋•哈丁曾先後在多傢報紙任職，1996年成為《衛報》駐外記者，2007—2011年擔任《衛報》莫斯科站站長。他著有《維基解密：阿桑奇與保密製度的戰爭內幕》等多部作品，其作品被翻譯成十數種語言，曾獲英國最重要的政治寫作奬“奧威爾奬”提名。