Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers

The #1 New York Times bestseller and subject of the acclaimed major motion picture Bridge of Spies directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks as James B. Donovan.

Originally published in 1964, this is the "enthralling...truly remarkable" (The New York Times Book Review) insider account of the Cold War spy exchange--with a new foreword by Jason Matthews, New York Times bestselling author of Red Sparrow and Palace of Treason.

In the early morning of February 10, 1962, James B. Donovan began his walk toward the center of the Glienicke Bridge, the famous "Bridge of Spies" which then linked West Berlin to East. With him, walked Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, master spy and for years the chief of Soviet espionage in the United States. Approaching them from the other side, under equally heavy guard, was Francis Gary Powers, the American U-2 spy plane pilot famously shot down by the Soviets, whose exchange for Abel Donovan had negotiated. These were the strangers on a bridge, men of East and West, representatives of two opposed worlds meeting in a moment of high drama.

Abel was the most gifted, the most mysterious, the most effective spy in his time. His trial, which began in a Brooklyn United States District Court and ended in the Supreme Court of the United States, chillingly revealed the methods and successes of Soviet espionage.

No one was better equipped to tell the whole absorbing history than James B. Donovan, who was appointed to defend one of his country's enemies and did so with scrupulous skill. In Strangers on a Bridge, the lead prosecutor in the Nuremburg Trials offers a clear-eyed and fast-paced memoir that is part procedural drama, part dark character study and reads like a noirish espionage thriller. From the first interview with Abel to the exchange on the bridge in Berlin--and featuring unseen photographs of Donovan and Abel as well as trial notes and sketches drawn from Abel's prison cell--here is an important historical narrative that is "as fascinating as it is exciting" (The Houston Chronicle).

　　詹姆士．B．唐納文(James B. Donovan)於一九一六年生於紐約市，畢業於福坦莫大學與哈佛法學院，曾在二次大戰官拜海軍中校，後來進入戰略情報局（Office of Strategic Services）擔任法務長，隨後在紐倫堡大審判擔任副檢察官。唐納文先生後來接過大案無數，足跡遍及三十餘州。一九六二年，他代表民主黨角逐紐約州聯 邦參議員席位，也曾任古巴親屬委員會法務長，從卡斯楚統治的古巴解救九千七百餘名古巴人與美國人。唐納文曾任普瑞特學院（Pratt Institute）院長以及紐約市教育委員會主席，於一九七○年逝世，留下妻子與四名子女。

About the Author
 
　　Born in New York City in 1916, James B. Donovan graduated from Fordham University and Harvard Law School. A commander in the Navy during World War II, he became general counsel of the Office of Strategic Services and was associate prosecutor at the principal Nuremberg trial. Mr. Donovan subsequently acted as chief counsel in major trials and appeals in over thirty states, and was an insurance lawyer and partner at Watters and Donovan. He was Democratic candidate for United States Senator from New York in 1962; served as general counsel for the Cuban Families Committee, obtaining the release of more than 9,700 Cubans and Americans from Castro’s Cuba; was president of Pratt Institute; and was president of the Board of Education of the City of New York. He died in 1970, and was survived by his wife and four children.
 
　　Jason Matthews is a retired officer of the CIA’s Operations Directorate. Over a thirty-three-year career he served in multiple overseas locations and engaged in clandestine collection of national security intelli­gence, specializing in denied-area operations. Matthews conducted recruitment operations against Soviet–East European, East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean targets. As Chief in various CIA Stations, he collaborated with foreign partners in counterproliferation and counterterrorism operations. He lives in Southern California.