Engrossing. . . . Gellman [is] a thorough exacting reporter . . . a marvelous narrator for
this particular story as he nimbly guides us through complex technical arcana and some
stubborn ethical questions. . . . Dark Mirror would be simply pleasurable to read if the story
it told didn't also happen to be frighteningly real. -Jennifer Szalai The New York Times From
the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the New York Times bestseller Angler the
definitive master narrative of Edward Snowden and the modern surveillance state based on
unique access to Snowden and groundbreaking reportage around the world. Edward Snowden touched
off a global debate in 2013 when he gave Barton Gellman Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald each
a vast and explosive archive of highly classified files revealing the extent of the American
government's access to our every communication. They shared the Pulitzer Prize that year for
public service. For Gellman who never stopped reporting that was only the beginning. He
jumped off from what Snowden gave him to track the reach and methodology of the U.S.
surveillance state and bring it to light with astonishing new clarity. Along the way he
interrogated Snowden's own history and found important ways in which myth and reality do not
line up. Gellman treats Snowden with respect but this is no hagiographic account and Dark
Mirror sets the record straight in ways that are both fascinating and important. Dark Mirror is
the story that Gellman could not tell before a gripping inside narrative of investigative
reporting as it happened and a deep dive into the machinery of the surveillance state. Gellman
recounts the puzzles dilemmas and tumultuous events behind the scenes of his work - in top
secret intelligence facilities in Moscow hotel rooms in huddles with Post lawyers and editors
in Silicon Valley executive suites and in encrypted messages from anonymous accounts. Within
the book is a compelling portrait of national security journalism under pressure from legal
threats government investigations and foreign intelligence agencies intent on stealing
Gellman's files. Throughout Dark Mirror Gellman wages an escalating battle against unknown
adversaries who force him to mimic their tradecraft in self-defense. With the vivid and
insightful style that is the author's trademark Dark Mirror is a true-life spy tale about the
surveillance-industrial revolution and its discontents. Along the way with the benefit of
fresh reporting it tells the full story of a government leak unrivaled in drama since All the
President's Men.
