What they found would upend the West’s understanding of human history. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood-both already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome-sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world’s most intrepid travelers. Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya The Angel also chronicles the discord within the Israeli government that brought down Prime Minister Golda Meir. In the process, he sheds new light on this volatile time in modern Egyptian and Middle Eastern history, culminating in 2011’s Arab Spring. Under the codename “The Angel,” Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services-and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat.ĭrawing on meticulous research and interviews with many key participants, Uri Bar Joseph pieces together Marwan’s story. But Marwan himself had a secret: He was a spy for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved IsraelĪ gripping feat of reportage that exposes-for the first time in English-the sensational life and mysterious death of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian senior official who spied for Israel, offering new insight into the turbulent modern history of the Middle East.Īs the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country’s government.

Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen