Life Undercover

Coming of Age in the CIA

By: Amaryllis Fox

Narrated by: Amaryllis Fox

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER

"Fast and thrilling.... Life Undercover reads as if a John le Carré character landed in Eat Pray Love." (The New York Times)

Amaryllis Fox's riveting memoir tells the story of her 10 years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world's most dangerous terrorists in 16 countries while marrying and giving birth to a daughter

Amaryllis Fox was in her last year as an undergraduate at Oxford studying theology and international law when her writing mentor, Daniel Pearl, was captured and beheaded. Galvanized by this brutality, Fox applied to a master's program in conflict and terrorism at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where she created an algorithm that predicted, with uncanny certainty, the likelihood of a terrorist cell arising in any village around the world.

At 21, she was recruited by the CIA. Her first assignment was reading and analyzing hundreds of classified cables a day from foreign governments and synthesizing them into daily briefs for the president. Her next assignment was at the Iraq desk in the Counterterrorism center.

At 22, she was fast-tracked into advanced operations training, sent from Langley to "the Farm", where she lived for six months in a simulated world learning how to use a Glock, how to get out of flexicuffs while locked in the trunk of a car, how to withstand torture, and the best ways to commit suicide in case of captivity.

At the end of this training, she was deployed as a spy under non-official cover - the most difficult and coveted job in the field as an art dealer specializing in tribal and indigenous art and sent to infiltrate terrorist networks in remote areas of the Middle East and Asia.

Life Undercover is exhilarating, intimate, fiercely intelligent - an impossible-to-pause record of an extraordinary life, and of Amaryllis Fox's astonishing courage and passion.

©2019 Amaryllis Fox (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A riveting account of the decade the author spent risking her life in the CIA’s most clandestine unit." (People)

"Gripping...Fox masterfully conveys the exhilaration and loneliness of life undercover, and her memoir reads like a great espionage novel." (Publishers Weekly starred review)

"Extraordinary...[A] remarkable life...Fox engagingly - and transparently - describes her work as an undercover agent for the CIA." (Kirkus Reviews)

Thank you Ms Fox

There are going to be a lot of children of CIA officers , especially those growing up during the Cold War, hearing your wold and seeing their own.
Well done, from one of those children.

Enthralling and Poetic

This book is ironically truthful- the names and places may have changed but the grit and honesty of human emotion is present throughout. A fascinating read for those interested in spy craft or someone looking for an interesting memoir. The tagline for this book couldn’t be more succinctly put. Fox has artfully woven together the pivotal developmental milestones many of us experience, creating an incredibly relatable tapestry- then again most of us are not toiling away with finding the balance in our humanity while simultaneously being deep undercover.

Not What I Expected - but Great

Very interesting, informative and entertaing. Sometimes I'll struggle with a book that isn't 100% fascinating, but this was very easy to stick with.
I was looking for something more procedural about the CIA: The experience of recruitment, oddball details about what training and work is like... the handling friends and family... and this book DID cover these areas and more. It wasn't exactly what I had imagined- it was BETTER!

Great!

I can't imagine doing all of the play acting Amaryllis and her coworkers did. Their lives and so many other people's lives depended on her and her coworkers ability to act and to talk in precise ways that had to be quickly adapted for each situation as it unfolded. Very skilled self control and observation of people around her. She gives great examples of skills required to reach desired outcomes. This is a very interesting book and it drew me in. I would like to meet Amaryllis. I think she would be a good friend.

A captivating story, though with few "spy" details

This story gives a detailed and holistic view into the life of a woman who was recruited into the CIA, and eventually went undercover as a nuclear weapons broker dealing with terrorist organizations. I'd expected a story full of spy-novel action and incredible stories of sleuthing and manipulation. What I got was different, but more interesting: Fox tells how she found her way to the CIA, then gradually unfolds her account of life as a spy, full of the sort of details that bring the story to life (and feel like the things that'd occupy a real spy's time & energy) but would be left out of a Hollywood spy film. It doesn't paint a rosy picture, but rather offers a glimpse into the life of a real spy, leaving the reader with the impression that in the real world things are more complicated than they might seem: the heroes are often reckless, the villains often misunderstood, and a spy in the middle often left wondering whether or not they've truly made the world a safer place.

Good honest story

Thanks for your honest insight, and your grace under fire. As a mother of a son in the same employment...a little nerve wracking as well. Thankfully, he was raised with an open mind and with empathy.

Exceptional...

A sobering reminder of the people whos work is performed in service to the citizens of the United States. And the costs paid by all who undertake the protection of the greater community of humanity...

Excellent

Thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Lots of insight, intrigue and wisdom. It is worth a second read and I don’t do that often.

Rivitting

Exciting, minus the one thoughtful and poignant story of a young woman’s life. Loved her right vulnerability at her journey and experience.

Book of the year...

This is not just a book about being in the CIA. Being undercover. This is so much more. I was beyond surprised at how good this book was. So much depth, deep emotion, trade craft, intensity. Fox has a way with words, has a way with thoughts.

This is literature. I rarely say that about a book.

Fox gave and excellent read.