LESSONS FROM THE EDGE A Memoir

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 of Russia 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 [Published: APRIL 2022]