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John le Carre

English • Irish • Novelist • Writer • Author
25 books in Langa

David John Moore Cornwell, known by his pen name John le Carré, was an English author. Many of his espionage novels have been adapted for film or television. He has been described as a "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", and is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen.

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Literature
John le Carre

Books in Langa Library

25 books available from this author.

A Delicate Truth

A Delicate Truth

Penguin UK · 2013 · English · EPUB

'With A Delicate Truth, le Carré has in a sense come home. And it's a splendid homecoming . . . the novel is the most satisfying, subtle and compelling of his recent oeuvre' The TimesA counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain's most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister's Private Secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it. Suspecting a disastrous conspiracy, Toby attempts to forestall it, but is promptly posted overseas. Three years on, summoned by Sir Christopher Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, and closely watched by Probyn's daughter Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and his duty to the Service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?__________________'No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times, from the Second World War to the 'War on Terror'' Guardian'The master of the modern spy novel returns . . . John le Carré was never a spy-turned-writer, he was a writer who found his canvas in espionage' Daily Mail 'A brilliant climax, with sinister deaths, casual torture, wrecked lives and shameful compromises' Observer
FictionThrillersEspionagePolitical+2
A Legacy of Spies: A Novel

A Legacy of Spies: A Novel

Penguin Publishing Group · 2017 · English · EPUB

<b>The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book&#8212;his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years </b><br>Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be held to account by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.<br> <br> Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carr&eacute; has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: <i>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</i> and <i>Tinker Tailor... <div><p><strong>The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book—his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years </strong> </p> <p>Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.<br> <br> Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: <em>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</em> and <em>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</em>. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.</p> <p>**</p><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3> <p><strong>An Amazon Best Book of September 2017:</strong> John Le Carré, who you may know from the classic George Smiley spy novels, has returned after 25 years to bring us <em>The Legacy of Spies</em>, an interweaving of past and present storylines that allows new readers a way into these (I'm going to say it… perfect ) thrillers and will have longtime fans swooning. I have loved the Smiley series since I first read book one, so I was more than apprehensive when I heard Le Carré was reigniting the storyline with ‘Legacy’ after so many years (needlessly as it turns out). Peter Guillam, Smiley's most prized assistant, returns with both grace and vengeance as he evaluates life and the lies he has created to survive. Readers don't need to have read the past titles to understand or enjoy ‘Legacy’, but I guarantee you will want to go back and start at the beginning as soon as you turn that final page. <em>--Penny Mann</em></p> <h3>Review</h3> <p>“[Le Carré's] novels are so brilliant because they’re emotionally and psychologically absolutely true, but of course they’re novels.”—<em>New York Times Book Review</em> </p> <p>"[Le Carré] can convey a character in a sentence, land an emotional insight in [a] phrase &amp; demolish an ideology in a paragraph."<br> —<em>Publishers Weekly </em>(starred) </p> <p>“Le Carré is such a gifted storyteller that he interlaces the cards in his deck so they fit not simply with this book, but with the earlier ones as well.”—<em>The Atlantic<br> </em><br> “We wish for more complexity and logic in our politics, so we look to make political art that is logical and complex: a genre defined by John le Carré.”—<em>New Republic<br> </em><br> “Any reader who knows le Carré's earlier work, and quite a few who don't, will assume that any attempt to second-guess the mandarins of the Service will backfire. The miracle is that the author can revisit his best-known story and discover layer upon layer of fresh deception beneath it.”<br> —<em>Kirkus</em> </p> <p><strong>Praise for John le Carré</strong> </p> <p>“One of our great writers of moral ambiguity, a tireless explorer of that darkly contradictory no-man’s land.”<br> —<em>Los Angeles Times</em><br> <em> </em><br> “No other writer has charted—pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers—the public and secret histories of his times.” <br> —<em>The Guardian </em>(UK)<br> <br> “I would suggest immortality for John le Carré, who I believe one of the most intelligent and entertaining writers working today.”<br> —Alan Cheuse, <em>Chicago Tribune</em><br> <br> “The constant flow of emotion lifts le Carré not only above all modern suspense novelists, but above most novelists now practicing.”<br> —<em>Financial Times</em><br> <br> “A writer of towering gifts.”<br> —<em>The Independent</em> (UK) </p></div>
FictionThrillersEspionageSuspense+2
A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man

Simon and Schuster · 2008 · English · EPUB

Now a major film starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, and Robin Wright—the acclaimed bestselling novel about spies in “The War on Terror.”A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa. Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client’s survival becomes more important to her than her own career—or safety. In pursuit of Issa’s mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Frères, a failing British bank based in Hamburg. Annabel, Issa, and Brue form an unlikely alliance—and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, sensing a sure kill in the “War on Terror,” the rival spies of Germany, England, and America converge upon the innocents. Thrilling, compassionate, with characters you’ll never forget, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.
FictionThrillersEspionageSuspense+1
A Perfect Spy

A Perfect Spy

Penguin Publishing Group · 2016 · English · EPUB

<b>From the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>A Legacy of Spies.</i> John le Carr&eacute;'s new novel, <i>Agent Running in the Field</i>, is coming October 2019.</b><br> Over the course of his seemingly irreproachable life, Magnus Pym has been all things to all people: a devoted family man, a trusted colleague, a loyal friend&#8212;and the perfect spy. But in the wake of his estranged father's death, Magnus vanishes, and the British Secret Service is up in arms. Is it grief, or is the reason for his disappearance more sinister? And who is the mysterious man with the sad moustache who also seems to be looking for Magnus?<br> <br> In <i>A Perfect Spy</i>, John le Carr&eacute; has crafted one of his crowning masterpieces, interweaving a moving and unusual coming-of-age story with a morally tangled chronicle of modern espionage. <p>'The best English novel since the war' Philip RothMagnus Pym - ranking diplomat, consummate Englishman, loving husband, secret agent - has vanished. Has he defected? Gone to ground? As the hunt for Pym intensifies, the secrets of his life are revealed: the people he has loved and betrayed, the unreliable con-man father who made him, the two mentors who moulded and shaped him, and now wish to claim this perfect spy as their own. Described by le Carré as his most autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy is a devastating portrayal of a man who has played different roles for so long, he no longer knows who he is. 'Le Carré understood that espionage is an extreme version of the human comedy, even the human tragedy. A Perfect Spy will very likely remain his greatest book' New Yorker</p>
FictionThrillersEspionageLiterary
A Small Town in Germany

A Small Town in Germany

Bantam Books · 1990 · English · EPUB

A British diplomat carrying confidential files stolen from the embassy in Bonn suddenly vanishes--and a tough London investigator is determined to track the defector down. Here is a relentless thriller containing a secret on which England's survival, Germany's future, and the world's fate rests.
FictionThrillersEspionageMystery & Detective+1
Absolute Friends

Absolute Friends

Penguin Books Limited · 2018 · English · EPUB

'One of his most enthralling creations' Daily TelegraphBroke and working as a tour guide in Germany, rootless Englishman Ted Mundy catches a glimpse of an old friend hiding in the shadows. A friend he thought was lost to him. A friend who took him from radical 1960s Berlin to life as a double agent. Now, decades later, the Cold War is over and the war on terror has begun. Sasha has another mission for them both, but this time it is impossible to tell the difference between allies - and enemies. Set in a world of lies and shifting allegiances, Absolute Friends is a savage fable of our times.'Thoroughly gripping' Sunday Times
FictionThrillersEspionage
Agent Running in the Field: A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick

Agent Running in the Field: A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick

Penguin Books Limited · 2019 · English · EPUB

'The British spy thriller at its unputdownable best' ObserverSELECTED FOR BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS________________________________Nat, a veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, thinks his years as an agent runner are over. But MI6 have other plans. To tackle the growing threat from Moscow Centre, Nat is put in charge of The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. His weekly badminton session with the young, introspective, Brexit-hating Ed, offers respite from the new job. But it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Nat down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. _______________________________'A rich, beautifully written book studded with surprises. Narrative is a black art, and Le Carré is its grandmaster' Spectator 'Blisteringly contemporary' Economist 'Subtle, wry and seamless, it's an utter joy, from first page to last' Daily Mail'A very classy entertainment about political ideals and deception . . . laced with fury at the senseless vandalism of Brexit and of Trump' Guardian'A fine piece of storytelling' Times
FictionThrillersEspionageLiterary+7
Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel

Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel

Penguin Publishing Group · 2012 · English · EPUB

<b>From the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>A Legacy of Spies.</i> John le Carr&eacute;'s new novel, <i>Agent Running in the Field</i>, is coming October 2019.</b><br> <i>"Go back to Whitehall and look for more spies on your drawing boards."</i><p>George Smiley is no one's idea of a spy&#8212;which is perhaps why he's such a natural. But Smiley apparently made a mistake. After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he?</p><p>The heart-stopping tale of intrigue that launched both novelist and spy, <i>Call for the Dead</i> is an essential introduction to le Carr&eacute;'s chillingly amoral universe.</p> <p>The first of his peerless novels of Cold War espionage and international intrigue, Call for the Dead is also the debut of John le Carré's masterful creation George Smiley. "Go back to Whitehall and look for more spies on your drawing boards.</p> <p>"George Smiley is no one's idea of a spy—which is perhaps why he's such a natural. But Smiley apparently made a mistake. After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he?The heart-stopping tale of intrigue that launched both novelist and spy, Call for the Dead is an essential introduction to le Carré's chillingly amoral universe.</p>
FictionThrillersEspionageMystery & Detective+2
John Le Carré, Novels (Box Set): Volume 1

John Le Carré, Novels (Box Set): Volume 1

Penguin Books Limited · 2016 · English · EPUB

A box set of John le Carré's exceptional and thrilling first five novels, collected together for the first time:Call for the DeadA Murder of QualityThe Spy Who Came in from the ColdThe Looking Glass WarA Small Town in Germany
FictionThrillersEspionage
Our Game

Our Game

Penguin UK · 2016 · English · EPUB

Le Carré's post-Cold War masterpiece, filled with suspense, betrayal, desire and dramaThe Cold War is over and retired secret servant Tim Cranmer has been put out to pasture, spending his days making wine on his Somerset estate. But then he discovers that his former double agent Larry - dreamer, dissolute, philanderer and disloyal friend - has vanished, along with Tim's mistress. As their trail takes him to the lawless wilds of Russia and the North Caucasus, he is forced to question everything he stood for.
FictionThrillersEspionageGeneral+3
Our Kind of Traitor

Our Kind of Traitor

Penguin UK · 2010 · English · EPUB

In John le Carré's electrifying novel Our Kind of Traitor, innocents abroad are drawn into the darkest recesses of the financial world. Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.'If you want to know about the state of Britain today, forget the Booker shortlist. Just read John le Carré's latest thriller' Evening Standard'Few recent plays have had dialogue as good, and few recent literary novels can boast a set of characters so vividly imagined. Our Kind of Traitor is a teasing, beguiling, masterly performance' Sunday Times **From the** New York Times **bestselling author of** A Legacy of Spies. **** In this exquisitely told novel, John le Carré shows us once again his acute understanding of the world we live in and where power really lies. In the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and with Britain on the brink of economic ruin, a young English couple takes a vacation in Antigua. There they meet Dima, a Russian who styles himself the world’s Number One money-launderer and who wants, among other things, a game of tennis. Back in London, the couple is subjected to an interrogation by the British Secret service who also need their help. Their acquiescence will lead them on a precarious journey through Paris to a safe house in Switzerland, helpless pawns in a game of nations that reveals the unholy alliances between the Russian mafia, the City of London, the government and the competing factions of the British Secret Service.
FictionThrillersEspionageMystery & Detective+4
Single & Single

Single & Single

Penguin UK · 2018 · English · EPUB

'An adventure that takes us to the ends of the earth via the rich but often barren landscape of the human heart' The TimesWhy was an English lawyer shot dead in Turkey by his firm's top client? How can a down-at-heel magician in Devon explain the vast fortune that has mysteriously appeared in his daughter's trust fund? With customs officer Nat Brock on the trail, the answers point to the House of Single - once a respectable finance company, now entangled with a Russian crime syndicate. West is pitted against East, and the British establishment against a labyrinthine criminal superpower, in le Carré's searing novel of lives built upon lies.'A masterly work, faultless fiction of the highest order' Glasgow Herald New York Times bestselling author John le Carré's novels deftly navigate us through the intricate shadow worlds of international intrigue with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. A lawyer from a London finance house is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician in the English countryside is asked to explain the arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust. In Single & Single, le Carré masterfully establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. He tells of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. He also paints an intimate portrait of two families: one Russian, the other English; one trading illicit goods, the other laundering the profits; one betrayed by a son-in-law, the other betrayed, and redeemed, by a son.
FictionThrillersEspionageCrime+3
Smiley's People

Smiley's People

Pan Books · 1982 · English · EPUB

From the author of THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, a Cold War thriller in which George Smiley, chief of the British Secret Service, prepares to engage in his final battle with his Soviet counterpart.
FictionThrillersEspionage
Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel

Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel

National Geographic Books · 2011 · English · EPUB

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager, now a television series starring Tom Hiddleston. Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman…A very junior agent answers Vladimir’s call, but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Service considers the old spy to be anything except a senile has-been who can’t give up the game—until he’s shot in the face at point-blank range. Although George Smiley (code name: Max) is officially retired, he’s summoned to identify the body now bearing Moscow Centre’s bloody imprimatur. As he works to unearth his friend’s fatal secrets, Smiley heads inexorably toward one final reckoning with Karla—his dark “grail.”In Smiley’s People, master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Our Kind of Traitor John le Carré brings his acclaimed Karla Trilogy, to its unforgettable, spellbinding conclusion. With an introduction by the author.
FictionThrillersEspionageSuspense+1
The Constant Gardener: A Novel

The Constant Gardener: A Novel

Simon and Schuster · 2005 · English · EPUB

The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by New York Times bestselling author John le Carré, one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle -- young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carré portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy, as Justin Quayle -- amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat -- discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
FictionMedia Tie-InGeneralThrillers+2
The Honourable Schoolboy

The Honourable Schoolboy

Bantam Books · 1985 · English · EPUB

John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge and have earned him -- and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim. In this classic masterwork, le Carre expands upon his extraordinary vision of a secret world as George Smiley goes on the attack. In the wake of a demoralizing infiltration by a Soviet double agent, Smiley has been made ringmaster of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service). Determined to restore the organization's health and reputation, and bent on revenge, Smiley thrusts his own handpicked operative into action. Jerry Westerby, "The Honourable Schoolboy," is dispatched to the Far East. A burial ground of French, British, and American colonial cultures, the region is a fabled testing ground of patriotic allegiances'and a new showdown is about to begin.
FictionThrillersEspionage
The Karla Trilogy Digital Collection Featuring George Smiley: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People

The Karla Trilogy Digital Collection Featuring George Smiley: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People

Penguin · 2011 · English · EPUB

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPYThe first novel in John le Carré's celebrated and New York Times bestselling Karla trilogy featuring George Smiley, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a heart-stopping tale of international intrigue. The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement-especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla—his Moscow Centre nemesis—and sets a trap to catch the traitor. THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY As the fall of Saigon looms, master spy George Smiley must outmaneuver his Soviet counterpart on a battlefield that neither can afford to lose. The mole has been eliminated, but the damage wrought has brought the British Secret Service to its knees. Given the charge of the gravely compromised Circus, George Smiley embarks on a campaign to uncover what Moscow Centre most wants to hide. When the trail goes cold at a Hong Kong gold seam, Smiley dispatches Gerald Westerby to shake the money tree. A part-time operative with cover as a philandering journalist, Westerby insinuates himself into a war-torn world where allegiances—and lives—are bought and sold. Brilliantly plotted and morally complex, The Honourable Schoolboy is the second installment of John le Carré’s renowned and New York Times bestselling Karla Trilogy, the follow-up to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. SMILEY'S PEOPLE Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman…A very junior agent answers Vladimir’s call, but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Service considers the old spy to be anything except a senile has-been who can’t give up the game—until he’s shot in the face at point-blank range. Although George Smiley (code name: Max) is officially retired, he’s summoned to identify the body now bearing Moscow Centre’s bloody imprimatur. As he works to unearth his friend’s fatal secrets, Smiley heads inexorably toward one final reckoning with Karla—his dark “grail.”In Smiley’s People, master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Our Kind of Traitor John le Carré brings his acclaimed Karla Trilogy, to its unforgettable, spellbinding conclusion. John le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, will be available from Viking in September 2016
FictionThrillersEspionageMystery & Detective+2
The Little Drummer Girl: A Novel

The Little Drummer Girl: A Novel

Penguin Publishing Group · 2011 · English · EPUB

**From the *New York Times* bestselling author of *Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy* ; *Our Kind of Traitor;* soon to be a miniseries on AMC starring Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Shannon, and Florence Pugh.** *"You want to catch the lion, first you tether the goat."* On holiday in Mykonos, Charlie wants only sunny days and a brief escape from England's bourgeois dreariness. Then a handsome stranger lures the aspiring actress away from her pals--but his intentions are far from romantic. Joseph is an Israeli intelligence officer, and Charlie has been wooed to flush out the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for a string of deadly bombings. Still uncertain of her own allegiances, she debuts in the role of a lifetime as a double agent in the "theatre of the real." Haunting and deeply atmospheric, John le Carre's *The Little Drummer Girl* is a virtuoso performance and a powerful examination of morality and... The classic le Carré spy novel comes to AMC as a 6 part mini-series starring Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Shannon, and Florence Pugh and directed by the acclaimed Park Chan-WookOn holiday in Mykonos, Charlie wants only sunny days and a brief escape from England's bourgeois dreariness. Then a handsome stranger lures the aspiring actress away from her pals--but his intentions are far from romantic. Joseph is an Israeli intelligence officer, and Charlie has been wooed to flush out the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for a string of deadly bombings. Still uncertain of her own allegiances, she debuts in the role of a lifetime as a double agent in the "theatre of the real. " Haunting and deeply atmospheric, John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl is a virtuoso performance and a powerful examination of morality and justice.
FictionMedia Tie-InThrillersEspionage+1
The Looking Glass War

The Looking Glass War

Penguin Canada · 2010 · English · EPUB

ONE LAST CHANCE TO PROVE THEIR METTLE There was a time when the distinctions were clear: the Circus handled all things political while the Department handled all matters military. After the war, power shifted and the Department faded out of influence. But with the unexpected intelligence of a possible missile threat, the Department again has a mission. The opportunity to reclaim former glory cannot be missed even if it means putting men s lives at risk on foreign soil. A top-secret British operation is underway to uncover facts regarding Soviet missiles in Germany. The government lures a German-speaking Pole turned Englishman, Fred Leiser, back from retirement to reverse potential international upheaval. Michael Jayston accompanies the listener on a fascinating insider's tour of an international spy network and introduces the dedicated and complicated cast of characters who risk all to carry out their missions. Jayston exposes the unabashed greed of the government's motives as its members manipulate the rusty Leiser. The mission through Germany is elaborate and demanding, and Jayston's description of Leiser's dire predicament never loses momentum"
FictionGeneralThrillersSuspense
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life

The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life

Viking · 2016 · English · EPUB

DON’T MISS THE PIGEON TUNNEL DOCUMENTARY—NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS AND STREAMING ON AppleTV+The New York Times bestselling memoir from John le Carré, the legendary author of A Legacy of Spies. “Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur—by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesFrom his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire or the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth; visiting Rwanda’s museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide; celebrating New Year’s Eve 1982 with Yasser Arafat and his high command; interviewing a German woman terrorist in her desert prison in the Negev; listening to the wisdoms of the great physicist, dissident, and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov; meeting with two former heads of the KGB; watching Alec Guinness prepare for his role as George Smiley in the legendary BBC TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People; or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in The Constant Gardener, le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood. Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer’s journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.
Biography & AutobiographyPersonal MemoirsLiterary FiguresPolitical Science+1
The Russia House

The Russia House

Scribner · 1989 · English · EPUB

### From Publishers Weekly The master of the spy novel has discovered perestroika , and the genre may never be the same again . Le Carre's latest is both brilliantly up-to-date and cheeringly hopeful in a way readers of the Smiley books could never have anticipated. Barley Blair is a down-at-heels, jazz-loving London publisher who impresses a dissident Soviet physicist during a drunken evening at a Moscow Book Fair. When the physicist attempts to have Barley publish his insider's study of the chaotic state of Soviet defense, British intelligence steps in. Barley, after extensive vetting by both MI5 and the CIA, is made the go-between for further invaluable information, and in the process becomes involved with the physicist's former lover, Katya. The portraits of American and British intelligence agents are, as always, wonderfully acute, and the plot is a dazzling creation. Le Carre's Russia is funny and touching by turns but always convincing, and the love affair between Barley and Katya, subtly understated, is by far the warmest the author has created. But the singing quality of The Russia House , written at the height of le Carre's powers, is its pervading sense of the increasing waste and irrelevance of ongoing cold-war machinations: "That is . . the tragedy of great nations. So much talent bursting to be used, so much goodness longing to come out. Yet all so miserably spoken for that sometimes we could scarcely believe it was America speaking to us at all." 350,000 first printing; BOMC main selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Library Journal A mysterious manuscript purporting to prove the Soviet defense system is unworkable is smuggled out of Moscow. It was intended for a flaky English publisher, a womanizing saxophone-playing boozer, but the smuggler has turned it over to British intelligence. In order to prove its authenticity, they recruit the publisher as an amateur spy and send him to Moscow to reestablish contact with the author. But the "truth" Barley Blair finds there is love and a purpose for his shambles of a life. As always with le Carre, this is a compelling spy story, a marvelous entertainment that is also as intelligent, witty, and brooding as many more self-consciously and less satisfying literary novels. It may not be the equal of The Quest for Karla trilogy or of a A Perfect Spy but it bears all the marks of a master, of the man who has both redefined and reanimated the espionage genre. BOMC main selection. *\- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.* Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Secret Pilgrim: A Novel

The Secret Pilgrim: A Novel

Random House Publishing Group · 2017 · English · EPUB

The acclaimed novel featuring George Smiley, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies and The Night Manager, now an AMC miniseries The rules of the game, and of the world, have changed. Old enemies now yield to glasnost and perestroika. The killing shadows of the Cold War are flooded with light. The future is unfathomable. To train new spies for this uncertain future, one must show them the past. Enter the man called Ned, the loyal and shrewd veteran of the Circus. With the inspiration of his inscrutable mentor George Smiley, Ned thrills all as he recounts forty exhilarating years of Cold War espionage across Europe and the Far East—an electrifying, clandestine tour of honorable old knights and notorious traitors, triumph and failure, passion and hate, suspicion, sudden death, and old secrets that haunt us still. Praise for The Secret Pilgrim “Intriguing . . . magisterial . . . The many ingredients are skillfully marshaled. . . . Lucidly and elegantly controlled.”—The New York Times Book Review “Scorching . . . fascinating . . . seductive . . . a dazzler.”—Entertainment Weekly “Powerful . . . a highly absorbing tale.”—Newsday “Extraordinary.”—USA Today
FictionThrillersEspionageSuspense+1
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Simon and Schuster · 2001 · English · EPUB

In this classic, John le Carré's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge culled from his years in British Intelligence, le Carré brings to light the shadowy dealings of international espionage in the tale of a British agent who longs to end his career but undertakes one final, bone-chilling assignment. When the last agent under his command is killed and Alec Leamas is called back to London, he hopes to come in from the cold for good. His spymaster, Control, however, has other plans. Determined to bring down the head of East German Intelligence and topple his organization, Control once more sends Leamas into the fray -- this time to play the part of the dishonored spy and lure the enemy to his ultimate defeat.
FictionGeneralThrillersEspionage+1
The Tailor of Panama: A Novel

The Tailor of Panama: A Novel

Random House Publishing Group · 2015 · English · EPUB

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies and The Night Manager, now an AMC miniseries He is Harry Pendel: Exclusive tailor to Panama’s most powerful men. Informant to British Intelligence. The perfect spy in a country rife with corruption and revolution. What his “handlers” don’t realize is that Harry has a hidden agenda of his own. Deceiving his friends, his wife, and practically himself, he’ll weave a plot so fabulous it exceeds his own vivid imagination. But when events start to spin out of control, Harry is suddenly in over his head—thrown into a lethal maze of politics and espionage, with unthinkable consequences. . . . Praise for The Tailor of Panama“Entertaining . . . a riotous, readable novel . . . A worthy successor to Graham Greene’s most wicked entertainments.”—The New York Times“Riveting . . . Le Carré has cut another masterpiece.”—Los Angeles Times “What makes le Carré the reigning grand master of espionage fiction? . . . Craft, certainly; he maintains an almost magnificent control of material, pace, dialogue, characterization.”—The Baltimore Sun “Brilliant . . . Le Carré remains fair in front of his field, a startlingly up-to-date storyteller who writes as well about the shadows around the power elite as anyone alive.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
FictionThrillersPoliticalMystery & Detective+2
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Penguin Books · 2011 · English · EPUB

Featuring George Smiley, this New York Times bestseller is the first installment in John le Carré’s acclaimed Karla Trilogy. From the author of A Delicate Truth and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement—especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla—his Moscow Centre nemesis—and sets a trap to catch the traitor. The Oscar-nominated feature film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) and features Gary Oldman as Smiley, Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech), and Tom Hardy (Inception). With an introduction by the author.
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