- Hardcover: 296 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; First Edition edition (April 3 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771017405
- ISBN-13: 978-0771017407
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 11.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #141,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
A Globe and Mail and Maclean’s bestseller
“A powerful memoir.”
— National Post
"[A] gripping story, filled with the stuff of spy thrillers. . . . this book provides a unique glimpse into a shadowy world not many of us will ever see."
— Globe and Mail
"For those who want insight into one of the world's best secret services, this book is must reading, as much for what it doesn't reveal as for what it does. And it does reveal a great deal."
— Winnipeg Free Press
“[A] sobering insider’s take on global politics and the terrorist threat.”
— Quill and Quire
“[It’s] Bond in a T-shirt and slippers. Whether or not one should tell tales out of school, ‘Michael Ross’ tells them effortlessly. He and Jonathan Kay have produced a page-turner, filled with well-observed, convincing detail.”
— George Jonas, author of Vengeance (the book that inspired the film Munich)
“A powerful memoir.”
— National Post
"[A] gripping story, filled with the stuff of spy thrillers. . . . this book provides a unique glimpse into a shadowy world not many of us will ever see."
— Globe and Mail
"For those who want insight into one of the world's best secret services, this book is must reading, as much for what it doesn't reveal as for what it does. And it does reveal a great deal."
— Winnipeg Free Press
“[A] sobering insider’s take on global politics and the terrorist threat.”
— Quill and Quire
“[It’s] Bond in a T-shirt and slippers. Whether or not one should tell tales out of school, ‘Michael Ross’ tells them effortlessly. He and Jonathan Kay have produced a page-turner, filled with well-observed, convincing detail.”
— George Jonas, author of Vengeance (the book that inspired the film Munich)
Product Description
The riveting story of a Canadian who serves as a senior officer in Israel’s legendary Mossad.
In 1982 a young Michael Ross joins the legion of Canadian twenty-somethings backpacking in Europe. Through happenstance, he winds up working on a Kibbutz in Israel, where he falls in love with the land and its ancient, multi-layered history. He immerses himself in Israeli culture, converts to Judaism, and adopts his new country’s struggle for survival as his own, joining the Israel Defence Force and eventually Mossad’s most elite and storied covert-operations unit, Caesaria.
For seven-and-a-half years, Ross worked as an undercover agent — a classic spy. In The Volunteer, he describes his role in missions to foil attempts by Syria, Libya, and Iran to acquire advanced weapons technology. He tells of his part in the capture of three senior al Qaeda operatives who masterminded the 1998 attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; a joint Mossad-FBI operation that uncovered a senior Hezbollah terrorist based in the United States; and a mission to South Africa in which he intercepted Iranian agents seeking to expand their country’s military arsenal; and two-and-a-half years as Mossad’s Counterterrorism Liaison Officer to the CIA and FBI.
Many of the operations Ross describes have never before been revealed to the public.
My first face-to-face encounter with the entity the world now knows as al Qaeda began on Friday, August 7, 1998, the day the group detonated truck bombs outside U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 291 innocents, including 12 U.S. citizens, and injuring over 4,500 African bystanders. On August 7, I was at home in Israel, enjoying a rare day off, but soon after the blasts, my pager went off. It was an urgent request to call the Mossad’s 24/7 communications center. I checked in by phone, then raced to HQ in my tiny Renault, running up the two flights of stairs to the counterterrorism department.
There, I found Etti, an analyst in the “World Jihad” branch (known informally as the department of “awful Ahmeds”) and a few others studying the cable traffic from our liaison station in Nairobi. I noticed Etti had a cigarette going — despite the no-smoking policy at HQ, it was the sort of thing a tough old hand like Etti could get away with under these circumstances. She greeted me with her usual flurry of casual obscenities, and handed me a stack of reports that brought me up to speed.
— From The Volunteer
In 1982 a young Michael Ross joins the legion of Canadian twenty-somethings backpacking in Europe. Through happenstance, he winds up working on a Kibbutz in Israel, where he falls in love with the land and its ancient, multi-layered history. He immerses himself in Israeli culture, converts to Judaism, and adopts his new country’s struggle for survival as his own, joining the Israel Defence Force and eventually Mossad’s most elite and storied covert-operations unit, Caesaria.
For seven-and-a-half years, Ross worked as an undercover agent — a classic spy. In The Volunteer, he describes his role in missions to foil attempts by Syria, Libya, and Iran to acquire advanced weapons technology. He tells of his part in the capture of three senior al Qaeda operatives who masterminded the 1998 attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; a joint Mossad-FBI operation that uncovered a senior Hezbollah terrorist based in the United States; and a mission to South Africa in which he intercepted Iranian agents seeking to expand their country’s military arsenal; and two-and-a-half years as Mossad’s Counterterrorism Liaison Officer to the CIA and FBI.
Many of the operations Ross describes have never before been revealed to the public.
My first face-to-face encounter with the entity the world now knows as al Qaeda began on Friday, August 7, 1998, the day the group detonated truck bombs outside U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 291 innocents, including 12 U.S. citizens, and injuring over 4,500 African bystanders. On August 7, I was at home in Israel, enjoying a rare day off, but soon after the blasts, my pager went off. It was an urgent request to call the Mossad’s 24/7 communications center. I checked in by phone, then raced to HQ in my tiny Renault, running up the two flights of stairs to the counterterrorism department.
There, I found Etti, an analyst in the “World Jihad” branch (known informally as the department of “awful Ahmeds”) and a few others studying the cable traffic from our liaison station in Nairobi. I noticed Etti had a cigarette going — despite the no-smoking policy at HQ, it was the sort of thing a tough old hand like Etti could get away with under these circumstances. She greeted me with her usual flurry of casual obscenities, and handed me a stack of reports that brought me up to speed.
— From The Volunteer
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5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful and amazing!, Dec 15 2010
By WAjudo - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Volunteer: A Canadian's Secret Life in the Mossad (Paperback)
The VolunteerMichael Ross, being Canadian born, grew up in Victoria, British Columbia and joined the army at the age of 17. At the age of 21 he left the military and decided to travel for a bit. He eventually found his way to Israel where he would eventually meet his wife. While in Israel he worked hard to become a Jewish citizen, which required him to spend countless hours studying Hebrew and the Bible.
Not too long after getting married, he was enlisted in the Israeli military and eventually recruited to the Mossad where he went through intense training to adjust to the rigorous lifestyle of a spy.
Ross shares his experiences and feelings during the fifteen or so years he spent with the Mossad, both as a field agent and as a liaison officer in Tel Aviv. He often mentions the strain his career put on his family. One particular experience while working in Europe he mentions, "I'd felt the strain between my two competing identities - the real and the fake... I'd deliberately avoided anything approaching true friendship. All the parts that made me a real person... had been put in boxes and stored in another country." So in 1997 he took a desk job in Tel Aviv in order to spend more time with his wife and kids. While there he worked closely with the CIA and FBI to locate common targets of both nations. Eventually he went back to working as a field officer in Southwest Asia and Africa until he retired in 2001.
I personally enjoyed the book a great deal as I was able to imagine his experiences in my mind. It was insightful to read about real experiences that took place in the intelligence field and although Ross withholds information about industry secrets, the reader is able to gain a sense of appreciation of all that has taken place in the past. Ross is open with his feelings about each mission, which helps to add a touch of familiarity that the average person can relate to in a small way. If you are looking for a book to read which will keep you turning the page and on your toes, then I recommend reading The Volunteer.
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN INSIDE TALE, Jan 4 2011
By Olivia Rodan Jacobs, author of THE POISONER'S... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Volunteer: A Canadian's Secret Life in the Mossad (Paperback)
(I wrote a review of this book which somehow ended up being attributed to "A Kid's Review." I will adapt and expand it here. To see my original review, go to the third book picture on the first page for VOLUNTEER and read the supposed "Kid's Review" and my comment.)THE VOLUNTEER is an intriguing tale of a North American who, as a young college grad not long out of the Canadian army, ended a European vacation with a side-trip to Israel. He ended up falling in love with a kibbutznik and a country--and becoming an Israeli. Which meant he had to serve in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).
Michael Ross is obviously not only very intelligent but his skills in the IDF brought him to the attention of an unspecified Israeli government agency, and he was invited to an interview for he knew not what. The upshot was he entered rigorous further training and served two decades in the Mossad.
His clear conversational writing tells an evolving tale, complete with spy tidbits that, while intriguing, don't give away the store. Two aspects of that tale deserve mention. He reiterates the Israeli creed of not harming innocents. Also, he openly describes the emotional toll the life of an undercover agent exacts, describing boredom, fear, the stress of separation from family, and ambivalence towards various missions.
This is a very human account of a job that is all-too-often romanticized. It is definitely a recommended read!
By Olivia Rodan Jacobs, author of THE POISONER'S AGENDA
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Volunteer, Sep 24 2010
By Whatever "NotAnAgent" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Volunteer: A Canadian's Secret Life in the Mossad (Hardcover)
This book is informative in terms of how the Israeli intelligence service works, but is not very well written. The author does not have a flair for understatement, but instead, often states the obvious. I enjoyed the accounts of his foreign assignments, and had to admit that the writer is one brave dude. Sorry to see his life (ie wife, children) fall apart by the end of his account, but it seems like intel has its occupational hazards. If you are interested in getting an overview of the Mossad, you will find this book useful.
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