Copperfield’s to host live-streamed author talk with Edward Snowden

For the last couple of weeks, visitors to Petaluma’s Copperfield’s Book Store may have noticed an eye-catching sight in the window as they enter the store.

The corner has been stripped of its traditional display of seasonal books, and instead has been transformed into a cramped hiding space with a simple bed, a crate for a nightstand, a laptop and a cup of coffee on the bedspread, all watched over by a large reproduction of the cover of Edward Snowden’s soon-to-be-released young adult adaptation of his memoir “Permanent Record: How One Man Exposed the truth about Government Spying and Digital Security.”

The display vividly suggests secrecy, isolation, intrigue and danger, with a hint of high tech intrigue, all of which are indelible aspects of the new book, adapted from Snowden’s memoir of the same name, released in late 2019.

The young adult version, which hits the stands next week, has been rewritten for ages 12 to 18, and includes an afterword with tips on how to keep yourself “digitally safe” while using the internet.

To promote the book, Snowden will be be doing one interview only, and through a long-lasting relationship with the book’s publisher, Henry Holt and Company, that interview was offered to Sonoma County’s Copperfield’s.

The live interview, conducted by science-fiction author Cory Doctorow (“Little Brother,” “Homeland”), will be streamed from Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, the day of the book’s release.

Snowden, of course, is the former CIA officer from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, who worked as contractor and systems administrator for the National Security Agency until 2013, when he made the decision to leak highly classified material to select reporters. The information, detailing a massive surveillance system being developed by the US government, potentially capable of being used to invade the phone, text, email and online privacy of everyone in the country.

The move made Snowden a highly sought criminal and an international fugitive, leading him to flee the country. He now resides in Russia.

When the first version of the memoir was released, the US government successfully sued to block Snowden from receiving any financial remuneration from the bestseller, alleging violations of nondisclosure agreements with the CIA and NSA.

Snowden’s story has been told in the movies “Citizenfour,” a 2014 documentary by Laura Poitras and “Snowden,” a 2016 thriller by Oliver Stone, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In a statement about the new youth adaptation of his memoir, Snowden writes, “The young readers of today are being born into a world where everything that can be known about them — from their simplest joys to their greatest mistakes — is compiled into a permanent record over which they have very little control. This adaptation is an effort to make what was previously an expert conversation about power, the world, and our place in it accessible to children and their families. At its core, this story is a lesson about how, when the world goes wrong, sometimes even the youngest among us can help set things right.”