Praise for PRISONER OF LIES
“A TALE OF RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ALMOST UNTHINKABLE MISFORTUNE…Barry Werth’s thoughtful and engaging narrative of Downey’s life and captivity, gallops along from Downey’s school days in the 1940s all the way through the rise of Donald Trump as a public figure in the 1980s. Werth is an elegant writer, and a virtue of this book is that it situates Downey’s personal drama in the context of his times which stretch across the American Century and beyond.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES
To read the full review from The New York Times, click HERE
“Riveting…the CIA’s Rip Van Winkle…more than a hero of American spycraft, Downey was its martyr.” — THE ECONOMIST
“Gripping…A thrilling spy story and informative Cold War exploration.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)
“The narrative flows… The journalist’s craft is evident…Werth clearly felt that Jack Downey deserved to have his story told sympathetically and in a broader context, and in that the author succeeded.” — THE CIPHER BRIEF
“Riveting…a robust look at the Cold War’s perpetual limbo through the prism of one spy’s harrowing ordeal.” — PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
“Readers will revel in Werth’s raw and unsparing depiction of international power politics and a brave American hero.” — BOOKLIST
“This long overdue book cuts through the web of deceit that shaped one of the most dramatic and secret episodes of the Cold War. Written with restrained outrage, it is both the story of one remarkable CIA officer and of the government that abandoned him. Thrilling, richly informative, and infuriating.” — Stephen Kinzer, author of The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
“In this real-life spy thriller, a brave young American survives the cruelty of both sides in the Cold War. Jack Downey is the resilient hero of this astonishing saga, told by a writer in full command of his material. You will not soon forget this shocking tale.” — Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel
“All countries lie and all countries spy. But for a while in the dead middle of the 20th century the United States pretended that it was different, and the young CIA recruit Jack Downey became the victim of the truths his country refused to tell. Barry Werth’s wonderful new book is a real-life page-turner, a history of the Cold War, a study in stoic heroism, and a profound tale of forgiveness and rebirth.” — Michael Gorra, author of The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War
“Barry Werth’s PRISONER OF LIES is many things: A bracing saga of survival, post-war history of government hubris, and a painful example of America’s anti-communist fervor. Most of all, though, it is a thrilling story about the fortitude, determination and courage of Jack Downey, the man who spent more years in a communist prison than any other American.” — Joe Nocera, co-author of The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed about Who America Protects and Who it Leaves Behind
“In Barry Werth, Downey’s story has found the perfect writer; thorough, fair, insightful, and most of all empathetic. This is an important book.” — Daniel Okrent, author of The Guarded Gate
Praise for THE ANTIDOTE
“A riveting mix of molecular science, big personalities – and big money.” — NATURE
“The vividness and rich detail of THE ANTIDOTE make it a gripping coming-of-age story for modern corporate and scientific times.” — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Werth’s excellent writing takes the reader deep into the heart of Vertex and into the dilemma facing the biotech pioneers, and us all.” — FORTUNE.COM
“As Werth tells the story of Vertex’s teenage and early adult years, it’s hard not to dream of what the full realization of Boger’s “social experiment” could look like: an innovative, productive, science- and patient-focused respected global pharma company that retains the culture and drive of a freshly-minted biotech. Sometime, somewhere, a future biopharma CEO will hopefully read THE ANTIDOTE and be inspired to continue the quest.” — pharmagellan
“Barry Werth’s new book does for the world of biotech drug development what ‘The Soul of a New Machine’ did for the dawn of the computer age. It presents an exciting narrative about the business of bringing new products to market.” — THE BOSTON GLOBE
Praise for THE BILLION-DOLLAR MOLECULE
“A high-stakes tale of adventure and intrigue: Barbarians at the Lab…Werth’s work is a gem.” – THE WASHINGTON POST
“No writer has ever gotten as deeply inside a company as Werth got inside biotech Vertex. He offers deep insight into difficulties of drug discovery, the trials and tribulations of startups, and the conflict between great science and good business.” — FORTUNE, “THE 75 SMARTEST BOOKS WE KNOW”
“A riveting tale that has more in common with a John Grisham thriller than with tomes on modern science.” – BUSINESSWEEK
“Entertaining…a lively narrative of clashing egos, grand gambles, and frantic scrambling after renown and riches…” – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“An authoritative book about science and the business of science. It is also a fascinating and gripping tale about real people working under extreme pressure in pursuit of what seems like an impossible goal.” – TRACY KIDDER
“A truly masterful combination of science writing, business sophistication, and simple page-turning narrative skill. This book will help any reader better understand the fundamental scientific changes shaping the world, as well as the financial climate in which modern American businesses succeed or fail. I greatly admire the dexterity with which Barry Werth has carried this project off. This is a gripping and important book.” – JAMES FALLOWS
“A razzle-dazzle new saga.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Praise for DAMAGES
“A legal thriller that has an advantage over John Grisham’s books – it is fact, not fiction.”
–ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
“Meticulous detail, profound emotion…By viewing the medical malpractice suit through many sets of eyes, DAMAGES enables us to see the absurdity of the process. We’re left with a mixed bag of emotions: sympathy for the victims, frustration with the system (both health and legal), and abhorrence that our society has sunk to this level.” — SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
“The great astonishment in Barry Werth’s DAMAGES is its ability to completely inhabit two worlds at once: the wrenching world of the Sabia family, whose effort to raise their profoundly disabled son cannot help but break your heart, and the coldly calculating world of the malpractice lawsuit, where emotional distress is just one more consideration in the quest to decide what a case is ‘worth.’ The result is at once gut-wrenching and thought-provoking. You’ll never think of a lawsuit is quite the same way again.” –JOE NOCERA
“DAMAGES deserves to be read and thought about and discussed by people on all sides of the complex and often ugly collisions of law and medicine.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Richly detailed…a gripping, page-turning story, and a revealing and troubling look at our medical liability system.” – KIRKUS (STARRED REVIEW)
“A powerful tale of a medical malpractice suit…moving, skillfully told.” – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“A disturbing biopsy of a system in serious need of an overhaul.” – THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Praise for THE SCARLET PROFESSOR
“Exceptional…I cannot recall a book of nonfiction in the [past] decade that has demonstrated such a mastery of the craft.” – SAMUEL FREEDMAN
“Werth’s wonderfully crafted biography of the brilliant, tormented critic captures the politics, social climate and culture of fear of the America that Arvin experienced.”– BOOKLIST
“A riveting account of a gentle man overwhelmed by one of the waves of American hysteria that occasionally obliterate our common sense.” – KIRKUS (starred review)
“A hell of a story…Werth puzzles out the tormented, self-absorved Arvin with the intelligent empathy Arvin gave his subjects.” – NEWSWEEK
“Mesmerizingly well written.” – ANDREW HALLORAN
“Penetrating and compassionate.” – BRILL’S CONTENT
“Barry Werth has told (Arvin’s) story with sympathy but utterly without sentimentality or special pleading. He writes about Arvin’s sexual torments with refreshing and instructive dispassion…He understands that it is quite enough – indeed, it is all that really matters – to tell it as a human story, about a man who was denied happiness by his sexual nature, his private character, and the society in which he lived.” — WASHINGTON POST
Praise for 31 DAYS
“A gripping narrative account of Ford’s first weeks in office…a period in which some of the key players in the Bush administration rose to power and established their mastery of intra-administration battles, a period that serves as a bookend to our own.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Werth brings a refreshingly personal tone and a sharp biographer’s eye to the chronology of the Ford transition. His day to day real-time narration effectively conjures up the prevailing atmosphere – new promise mixed with the lingering baleful influence of Dark Lord Nixon – that made the Ford interregnum a unique moment of extreme contingency in the annals of the American Presidency.” — THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
“A runaway train of a read: I kept turning the pages as if I hadn’t already lived through the event.” – LIZ SMITH
“Never has the Ford administration seemed so gripping.” – THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
“A riveting minute-by-minute account of 31 days that affected our nation, with relevance to everything that has happened since.” – RICHARD HOLBROOKE
“A crackling account of the tumultuous time when Gerald Ford moved into the Oval Office following the resignation of President Nixon. The power struggles, legal maneuvers, personality conflicts and big stake all add up to a whodunit on a grand scale. I was there – and I was thrilled to take the trip again.” – TOM BROKAW
Praise for BANQUET AT DELMONICO’S
“A rich, entertaining slab of Victorian American history, focused on the debate over evolution…Histories of ideas are rarely page-turners, but Werth has done the trick.”
— KIRKUS (starred review)
“In this fascinating study, Werth shows how the idea of Social Darwinism, as codified by Herbert Spencer, took hold in the United States, underpinning the philosophy of the Gilded Age’s social, cultural and financial elite…Werth elegantly reveals a firm philosophical foundation for all the anti-labor excesses of the Industrial Age.” – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
“A beautifully written classic of nonfiction narrative.” – NATURE
“A surprisingly suspenseful and fast-paced story…BANQUET AT DELMONICO’S crackles with energy and wit…Werth is a gifted writer, and his subject is especially important in our current economic crisis.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“What Werth has done, cleverly, in addition to drawing Spencer out from behind Darwin’s shadow…is to create a narrative double helix of his own.” – LOS ANGELES TIMES
“On one level, the book is a study of how ideas are understood, reworked, mangled, and applied to society: BANQUET AT DELMONICO’S is like a racier version of THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB, Louis Menand’s worthy study of the origins of pragmatism. But Werth also offers a portrait of how ideas can be transformed when their originators vacate the public sphere.” — NATION