Bobby Egan – is a ribs restaurant owner, high school dropout, former drug addict and roofing contractor from Hackensack, NJ – who, through his sheer determination and in some sense his naiveté, managed to insert himself into the highest levels of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and North Korea. Over a thirteen-year friendship with Pyongyang’s man in New York, Han Song Ryol, Bobby managed to entangle himself with the FBI, unhinge the CIA and NSC, befriend Ross Perot, get injected with truth serum in North Korea and offer some of the only real insight that our government had about the "intelligence black hole.” His is the story of a patriot and an unlikely double agent. Funny and mind-boggling, it's as though Tony Soprano took a seat at the U.N. and tried to stop a nuclear war. Sometimes peacemakers come from the strangest places.
BOBBY EGAN’S BLOG
“This very special book is the life story of a patriot. One of the most unlikely persons anyone could imagine trying to bring warring nations to a détente table.”
Sydney H. Schanberg
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author
Inspiration for The Killing Fields
“Egan and Pitzer offer a stunning account of how a New Jersey restaurateur “penetrated” the North Korean diplomatic cadre in ways that eluded U.S. intelligence.”
David Albright
Former U.N. Weapons Inspector
“This rollicking tale proves that the global can be personal, if you have the right guy – the right regular guy off the street – in the middle of it.”
Roy Blount, Jr., Author
Alphabet Juice
“If Rocky Balboa had decided not to become a boxer but go into international diplomacy, this would be his story.”
Jasper Becker, Author
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the
Looming Threat of North Korea
“I had an enemy country on one side and FBI counterintelligence on the other. It had the potential to spin out of control and get me in trouble...and I liked it.”
Bobby Egan
Is North Korea Our Enemy?
BOBBY’S COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NORTH KOREANS AND THE FBI
“Astounding”
The Daily Beast
.
“A boisterous, improbable tale”
The New York Times
“A masterwork of pace, structure and voice”
Maclean’s
.
“A mind-boggling story”
Vanity Fair
.
“A great read”
President Bill Clinton
.