Nina Willner is the award-winning author of two critically acclaimed nonfiction books. The Boys in the Light (Dutton/Penguin Random House 2025) was named Amazon’s #3 Best Book of 2025 – Top Nonfiction, and Best History Book of the Year, received a Kirkus starred review, and won a 2026 Christopher Award. Willner's first book Forty Autumns‍ (HarperCollins Wm Morrow 2016) was named a “Top 15 Nonfiction Book of 2016” by The CS Monitor. Prior to her writing career, Nina was a US Army intelligence officer who led sensitive missions behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. After a career in intelligence, Nina lived in Moscow, Minsk, Prague, Ottawa and Istanbul  promoting human rights, women’s and children’s causes and the rule of law for the US government, nonprofits and a variety of charities. After years living abroad, she now writes narrative nonfiction full time from her home in Washington DC.