Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir
Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir book cover

Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir

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Mariner Books
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MARIE YOVANOVITCH served as the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to other senior government positions during her thirty-three-year diplomatic career.xa0She retired from the State Department in 2020 and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a non-resident fellow at Georgetown University.xa0She has received multiple awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Service Award (twice), the Secretary’s Diplomacy for Freedom Award, the Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy, and the PEN/Benensonxa0Courage Award.xa0She lives in the Washington, DC, area. --This text refers to the hardcover edition. “Absorbing… During the [impeachment] hearings, Yovanovitch sounded calm and self-assured, but in her book she describes how scared she was…. That I arrived at this moment in the book with my heart in my throat speaks to how skillfully Yovanovitch narrates her life story." -- Jennifer Szalai, New York Times "Subtle and engaging ... Yovanovitch emerges from this narrative as a model of what America should want in its diplomats: courageous, steadfast, removed from politics to the point of naivete." -- David Ignatius, The Washington Post "Lessons From the Edge is a brilliant, engaging, and inspiring memoir from one of America’s wisest and most courageous diplomats. More than just a vivid exposition of the events leading up to Donald Trump’s first impeachment, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch has written a timely and authoritative account of U.S. policy towards the former Soviet Union. This book is essential reading for current policymakers, aspiring diplomats, and anyone who cares about America’s role in the world.” -- Madeleine K. Albright, former US Secretary of State“We’ve never needed [Yovanovitch’s] insights more than we do right now.” -- Ali Velshi, The Rachel Maddow Show “A superbly crafted and intimately revealing self-portrait of a true hero of American diplomacy.… Wherever her diplomatic missions took her, Yovanovitch epitomized foreign service office philosophy, hewing to the principle of representing American ideals and policies with dignity and integrity.” -- Booklist (starred review) “Yovanovitch's memoir is the right book at the right time as readers try to make sense of what's happening in Ukraine.” -- USA Today “Ambassador Yovanovitch’s dismissal from post in Kyiv marked a cruel end to the illustrious career of one of the most respected diplomats in the U.S. Foreign Service. It also helped spark a chain of events that led to Donald Trump’s first impeachment. This memoir, at turns moving and gripping and always inspiring, is a powerful testament to a uniquely American life well-lived and a remarkable career of dedicated public service at the highest levels of government.” -- Fiona Hill, Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution, and New York Times best-selling author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century “Timely and telling, as well as a fine story of a life in national service.” -- The Guardian “Captivating… a compelling memoir of diplomatic service behind the old Iron Curtain.” -- Kirkus Reviews “First through the breach, Ambassador Yovanovitch showed Americans what courage and patriotism looks like. More than essential reading, Lessons from the Edge is thoroughly engaging and impossible to put down, showing us how an introverted career diplomat overcame the most vicious of smear campaigns to become a foreign service legend.” -- Congressman Adam Schiff --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Features & Highlights

  • INSTANT
  • NEW YORK TIMES
  • BESTSELLER 
  • An inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine—a pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, and who electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump.
  • By the time she became U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump’s personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this memoir.
  • A child of parents who survived Soviet and Nazi terror, Yovanovitch’s life and work have taught her the preciousness of democracy as well as the dangers of corruption.
  • Lessons from the Edge
  • follows the arc of her career as she develops into the person we came to know during the impeachment proceedings.
  • “A brilliant, engaging, and inspiring memoir from one of America’s wisest and most courageous diplomats—essential reading for current policymakers, aspiring public servants, and anyone who cares about America’s role in the world.”—Madeleine K. Albright
  • “At turns moving and gripping and always inspiring … a powerful testament to a uniquely American life well-lived and a remarkable career of dedicated public service at the highest levels of government.”—Fiona Hill,
  • New York Times
  • best-selling author of
  • There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(1.1K)
★★★★
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(453)
★★★
15%
(272)
★★
7%
(127)
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Most Helpful Reviews

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An edge from which civilization could easily tumble; vital lessons

“Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir” by Marie Yovanovitch is one more in a long series of deeply probing, extremely relevant personal stories shared by individuals I consider to be “pivotal people” in our current time of crisis.

Needless to say, like everyone else, I became aware of and impressed by Ambassador Yovanovitch during the hearings for the first impeachment of our former president. I knew her memoir would be interesting, which is why I pre-ordered it months ago when it was first announced, and began reading it avidly as soon as it arrived on my Kindle. What I had not anticipated – doubtless due to my own obliviousness to the complications of world events prior to the recent series of crises – was how so many ominous circumstances related to the vicissitudes of developing democracies after the dissolution of the Soviet Union were interconnected via the machinations of the Russian determination to reassert domination. This is why I found the account Yovanovitch gives in this extraordinarily well-written and cogent memoir to be more than just an authentic insight into the life and personality of the author. It is also vitally enlightening about the geopolitical circumstances which currently threaten the survival not only of democracy but of our entire planet. The “edge” cited in the title is one from which civilization as a whole could easily tumble if we do not allow the lessons the author elucidates to become our ethical insights as soon as possible.
57 people found this helpful
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Excellent account of the world of diplomacy, a timely call for us to rescue US democracy

I picked up Ms. Yovanovitch's book with the memory stuck in my head of one of her statements in her House Committee testimony in fall 2019 - she explained that the State Department (and the Foreign Service) were being "hollowed out" by the unprofessional actions of the top political appointees of Trump. I remember reading Michael Lewis's excellent 2017 book "The Fifth Risk", which described the chaos in the 2016-2017 transition period, with new Trump political appointees neglecting or sabotaging the good work of the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Commerce. It's hard to match Michael Lewis as a great journalist and writer... but Marie Yovanovitch does great, giving us an equally artful account of the complex work of our diplomats (and a well-reasoned argument for why chaotic Trumpism has not served our country well at all).

So this isn't a typical memoir... it spends a lot of time on Yovanovitch's advancing career as a junior Foreign Service Officer, the obstacles she faced, and her "learning curve" on the path to becoming an ambassador in some difficult countries. It's an inspiring account, full of excellent career advice for anyone in a public-facing job. The best sentence in the book: "I didn't need to be something that I wasn't in order to succeed, whether it was a mini-man in a boxy suit or a person trying to adopt a persona that wasn't my own. I could be myself and still be effective." Good advice in both government and business.

We're used to seeing books about the "best" and the "worst" - corporate titans, murderers, politician saints and sinners. This book is considerably more humble... she's good but not a superstar, she overcomes a lot of self-doubt in her career, and in the end, she is brave enough to tell the truth that a corrupt president and a cowardly Secretary of State want to hide.
9 people found this helpful
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Was Zelenskyy serious, or just patronizing Trump?

Other reviewers have discussed the many strengths of Marie Yovanovitch's excellent biography. It’s a story of the myriad challenges and frustrations of working in the diplomatic corp offset by the occasional diplomatic success -- often unrecognized outside of the State Department. It’s hard, under-appreciated work as the reader learns.

Although Yovanovitch’s career climb as the rare woman (State Department ladies restrooms often still had urinals), from managing the automobile pool in Somalia to the Ukrainian Ambassadorship, is a remarkable accomplishment, it was her ugly public termination that differentiates her story. During three years as ambassador, Yovanovitch fought endemic corruption both inside and outside the Ukrainian government -- and made many enemies. That included Rudy Giuliani and President Trump. That story dominates the latter part of the book.

What I found confounding was a short paragraph following a description of how President Trump, on his infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, was “praising a corrupt prosecutor and trashing an American ambassador [Marie Yovanovitch].” Yovanovitch then, nonchalantly, writes: “Remarkably, Zelenskyy piled on. He called me a ‘bad ambassador’ and said he agreed with Trump’s assessment of me 100%. Even more ominously, he requested information ‘for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador…’ It was clear what he meant: I was at risk of prosecution in Ukraine.”

Unless I missed it somehow, this remarkable, and generally unknown, claim that Zelenskyy considered Yovanovitch a “bad ambassador” and might even prosecute her for corruption goes unanswered in the remainder of the book. Was Zelenskyy simply patronizing Trump, willing to sacrifice Yovanovitch in the process? Or did Zelenskyy truly believe Yovanovitch was a bad ambassador, even corrupt? That question remains unanswered in LESSONS FROM THE EDGE.
8 people found this helpful
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A career fighting corruption – until Trump & Giuliani stopped her

It always seemed that there were two kinds of ambassadors: the politically connected who got plum assignments in glamorous countries like France or Great Britain and those unsung public servants who performed their tasks in countries ruled by morally ambiguous political leaders and located in harsher and more primitive environments.

For the most part, Marie Yovanovitch didn’t get the glamorous assignments. Her first foreign assignment was in Mogadishu. And the majority of her career was spent in countries that previously had been a part of the USSR before its breakup at the end of the Cold War. So a large part of her career was spent trying to nudge those countries away from the rampant corruption that was a basic way of life for the leaders and elites of those countries. Those experiences in themselves would be book-worthy. But it was the USA’s domestic political corruption, orchestrated by Trump and Giuliani, which propelled Marie Yovanovitch to national recognition.

The first 80% of the book covers Marie Yovanovitch’s career up to the point of her sudden (and inexcusable) removal as ambassador to Ukraine. It struck me as an interesting career with increasing responsibility, continuous personal and professional growth and constantly increasing responsibility. That is itself made the book worthwhile. As a reader, my one negative was that, in almost every country she served, Marie Yovanovitch’s main problem was the constant battling against the corruption by the country’s leaders and elite. It made aspects of the book somewhat repetitive to this reader.

The last 20% of the book covers the political machinations behind the removal of Marie Yovanovitch’s as ambassador to Ukraine – and her subsequent decision to honor the Congressional subpoena and so testify.

Bottom line: Courageous and honorable woman. Interesting career cut short by unscrupulous politicians putting their self-interests above that of the USA.
7 people found this helpful
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Defogging Foggy Bottom

This memoir of Maria Yovanovitch is extremely candid and very revealing. She spent 33 years as an employee in the US State Department moving her way up the slippery career ladder and eventually becoming the US Ambassador to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and most recently Ukraine. This latter placement is most notable because of her betrayal by Rudy Giuliani and his operatives in Ukraine and her denunciation by President Trump before and during her courageous testimony in the course of his impeachment trial. The book includes detailed end notes and many black and white photos of the author throughout her life. For this reviewer, the most interesting part was her time in Ukraine which provides invaluable background information about the history of the country, its strained relationship with Russia and Ukraine's current struggles to maintain its democracy and establish its own identity in Europe.
7 people found this helpful
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Riveting, informative, and courageous

I found myself completely immersed in the back story and events as they unfolded. I learned so much about countries, their cultures, and how ambassadors serve to smooth out possible obstacles enabling two countries and its citizens to benefit. Since I was barely aware of what caused the huge government fiasco, I respect and admire the courage it took to share the true version of how dishonest, self-serving people can destabilize society and how a few ethical persons of integrity can balance the scales to set things right again.
7 people found this helpful
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A must read

Fascinating well written story by a phenomenal woman. Hope we get to see and hear more from her as she is clearly a very able person who stood up to Trump and co and all the lies and risks she exposed
4 people found this helpful
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Engrossing

First person account by the ambassador herself -a powerful autobiography and well worth your time to get the view of her abrupt end in the State Department at the hands of the Trump administration. It also provides a very realistic look at the role.an ambassador p!aye in service to our government.
4 people found this helpful
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In her own words

I enjoyed that she told her own story in her own words. Marie Yovanovitch is but a cog in the American machine and she knows that better than most. A simple story of how, sometimes, a public servant can be thrust onto an international stage and exude courage when it is most difficult. Her book makes me a little more proud to be an American.
3 people found this helpful
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Wonderful memoir

I found this memoir both compelling and very moving. I finished it with a much better understanding of the jobs that state department employees do and with tremendous respect for Marie Yovanovitch. What a gutsy and principled person!
3 people found this helpful

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