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Lessons From the Edge

A Memoir

Audiobook
4 of 5 copies available
4 of 5 copies available

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | An inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine—a pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, and who electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump.

By the time she became US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump's personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation's respect, and her dignified response to the president's attacks won our hearts. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this memoir.

A child of parents who survived Soviet and Nazi terror, Yovanovitch's life and work have taught her the preciousness of democracy as well as the dangers of corruption. Lessons from the Edge follows the arc of her career as she develops into the person we came to know during the impeachment proceedings.

"A brilliant, engaging, and inspiring memoir from one of America's wisest and most courageous diplomats—essential reading for current policymakers, aspiring public servants, and anyone who cares about America's role in the world."—Madeleine K. Albright

"At turns moving and gripping and always inspiring ... a powerful testament to a uniquely American life well-lived and a remarkable career of dedicated public service at the highest levels of government."—Fiona Hill, New York Times best-selling author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Former ambassador and long-term Foreign Service officer Marie Yovanovitch narrates with a clear purpose and a sure sense of pacing and timing. She has a pleasing voice that ably captures her story. In her 33-year career she had postings in Somalia, England, Russia, Armenia, and, famously, as ambassador to Ukraine. Both authoritative and prescient, her audiobook is especially insightful on matters Russian and its regional appetites. She knows whereof she speaks. Fluent in Russian, she is a longtime Putin observer, and while the audiobook ends before the current war, she supplies the backstory on how the invasion came to be. It is a compelling listen, a plea to understand and support our State Department, and is not at its core a score-settling screed. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 21, 2022
      The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who got unwillingly caught up in Donald Trump’s first impeachment, examines corruption abroad and at home in this stinging memoir. Yovanovitch was removed from her ambassadorship in Kiev in 2019 amid fabricated accusations of collusion with Ukrainian figures to subvert the 2016 U.S. presidential election and claims that she “had spoken with ‘disdain’ about the Trump administration.” As she writes, the allegations arose from efforts by Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and a Ukrainian prosecutor to tar candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter with insinuations of corrupt dealings in Ukraine. Yovanovitch gives a gripping account of this Kafkaesque scandal, complete with Trump’s drive-by tweets—“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad”—and her moving testimony at congressional impeachment hearings. She sets it within an engrossing recap of her diplomatic career in postings to Somalia and ex-Soviet nations, during which she was subjected to sexist indignities (while ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, she was asked by a press attaché to serve cookies to a reporter) and enmeshed in wrangles to promote reforms aimed at bolstering human rights and reducing rampant corruption in foreign governments (and, eventually, America’s). Full of shrewd insights and bitter ironies, Yovanovitch’s saga offers a revealing insider’s take on the labyrinth of foreign policy and on one of the most sordid episodes of Trump’s presidency. Photos.

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  • English

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