Description

VCU alumna Eva Dillon returns to campus to talk about her bestselling book, Spies in the Family. With rich insights into Cold War politics, the book is "a riveting true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer—the astonishing true story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War." A book sale, signing and reception follow the talk.

The event is free and open to all, but please register. Parking is available for a fee in the West Broad Street, West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks. For special accommodations, or to register offline, please contact the VCU Libraries Events Office at (804) 828-0593.

About the Book

In the summer of 1975, 17-year-old Eva Dillon was living in New Delhi with her family when her father was exposed as a CIA spy. Eva had long believed that her father was a U.S. State Department employee. She had no idea that he was handling the CIA's highest-ranking double agent—Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov—a Soviet general whose code name was TOPHAT. Her father and Polyakov had a close friendship that went back years, to their first meeting in Burma in the mid-1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Russian offered the CIA an unfiltered view into the vault of Soviet intelligence. His collaboration helped ensure that tensions between the two nuclear superpowers did not escalate into a shooting war.

Spanning 50 years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of two families on opposite sides of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives. With impeccable insider access to both families as well as knowledgeable CIA and FBI officers, Dillon goes beyond the fog of secrecy to craft an unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal, double agents and clandestine lives, that challenges our notions of patriotism, exposing the commonality between peoples of opposing political economic systems.

About the Author

Eva Dillon spent 25 years in the magazine publishing business in New York City, including stints at Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, The New Yorker and Reader's Digest, for which she served as U.S. president. She and her six siblings grew up moving around the world for her father's CIA assignments in Berlin, Mexico City, Rome and New Delhi. She holds a BA in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University and lives in Charleston, Sc.

Image: Spies in the Family book cover, courtesy of the author