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"Life Undercover" By Amaryllis Fox

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The original episode aired in October 2020.

Amaryllis Fox was in her last year as an undergraduate at Oxford studying theology and international law when her writing mentor Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded. Galvanized by this brutality, Fox applied to a master’s program in conflict and terrorism at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.  Soon, at the age of 22, she was recruited into the CIA, one of the youngest female officers.

Fox's memoir, 'Life Undercover,' tells the story of ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world’s most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries while marrying and giving birth to a daughter. But it is also the story of loneliness and coming to terms with the humanity even of the terrorists she encountered, and ultimately the need to find an enduring peace.  As the New York Times wrote, “Fast and thrilling . . . Life Undercover reads as if a John le Carré character landed in Eat Pray Love.”

Following her CIA career in the field, Amaryllis Fox has covered current events and offered analysis for CNN, National Geographic, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and other global news outlets. She speaks at events and universities around the world on the topic of peacemaking.

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