Lessons from the Edge follows the arc of her career as she develops into the person we came to know during the impeachment proceedings.

She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this memoir.Ī 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. 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. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. 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.īy the time she became U.S. “We are, after all, a nation not just of interests but of values.INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | An inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. “The cognitive dissonance of our policy exacted an emotional price on me,” she writes.

Meeting with the president, “I bluntly told him that international donors and investors wouldn’t put their money into a country run by criminals.”Ī stint as ambassador to Armenia left her wondering why President Barack Obama caved to Turkish pressure and reversed a campaign promise to recognize the 1915 genocide of Armenians by the Ottomans. This, too, was a lawless place, run by local crime bosses who tried to shake down the American ambassador and everyone else. Her first post as ambassador was in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, truly “the back of beyond,” in Rudyard Kipling’s phrase.

During a first tour in Kyiv as deputy chief of mission, she encountered another set of “newly minted oligarchs” and the government’s system of “telephone justice,” whereby politicians “picked up the phone and told prosecutors and judges what to do.” That initial assignment forearmed her for what she would encounter later when she returned as ambassador in 2016.

Lessons from the edge a memoir