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| Author: John Le Carre |
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| Format: | Paperback |
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Product Summary
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
ISBN-10: 014312093X
ISBN-13: 9780143120933
Buy.com Sku: 222268996
Publish Date: 10/5/2011
Dimensions:
(in Inches) 8.25H x 5.5L x 1.25T
Pages:
381
See more in Espionage
Annotation:
The quintessential Cold War thriller, John LeCarre's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY introduced the term "mole"--meaning a spy who has burrowed so deeply into his cover identity that it's nearly impossible to dig him out and expose him--into common parlance. In fact, LeCarre says, British intelligence began using the term after their operatives read this novel. The book launches a new sequence in LeCarre's series about British Intelligence (aka the "Circus"), in which British spymaster George Smiley prepares to confront Karla, his opposite number in the KGB. ||Two years ago, the catastrophic failure of a mission in Czechoslovakia and a power struggle in the Circus led to Smiley's dismissal from British Intelligence, and to a new administration of ambitious men too blind to see the obvious: that there is a mole in their midst. But new rumors and restlessness among several of Smiley's former colleagues draw Smiley back into the business to head up a clandestine investigation into the rotten heart of the Circus. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is a thinking person's spy novel. Rather than relying on over-the-top gunplay and fancy gadgetry, operatives gather intelligence by conducting and overhearing key conversations, sifting through documents, and, most importantly, carefully, logically piecing together bits of information. Tension builds gradually, until the thrilling and entirely rewarding climax and surprisingly poignant dénouement.
The quintessential Cold War thriller, John LeCarre's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY introduced the term "mole"--meaning a spy who has burrowed so deeply into his cover identity that it's nearly impossible to dig him out and expose him--into common parlance. In fact, LeCarre says, British intelligence began using the term after their operatives read this novel. The book launches a new sequence in LeCarre's series about British Intelligence (aka the "Circus"), in which British spymaster George Smiley prepares to confront Karla, his opposite number in the KGB. ||Two years ago, the catastrophic failure of a mission in Czechoslovakia and a power struggle in the Circus led to Smiley's dismissal from British Intelligence, and to a new administration of ambitious men too blind to see the obvious: that there is a mole in their midst. But new rumors and restlessness among several of Smiley's former colleagues draw Smiley back into the business to head up a clandestine investigation into the rotten heart of the Circus. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is a thinking person's spy novel. Rather than relying on over-the-top gunplay and fancy gadgetry, operatives gather intelligence by conducting and overhearing key conversations, sifting through documents, and, most importantly, carefully, logically piecing together bits of information. Tension builds gradually, until the thrilling and entirely rewarding climax and surprisingly poignant dénouement.
Author Bio
John Le Carre
Born David Cornwell in Poole, Dorset, John Le Carr? attended Berne University in Switzerland and Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating in 1956 with a B.A. in modern languages. After tutoring at Eton for two years, he went to work for the British Foreign Service in Bonn and Hamburg from 1959 to 1964. Le Carr? is best known for his brooding international spy, the ironically named George Smiley. In fact, Smiley is a dark, disturbed agent mired in the lonely, cutthroat world of espionage where the line between good and evil is often blurred, and sometimes erased. Le Carr? pulls no punches in depicting the stark, inhuman nature of international intrigue. He first gained fame for the classic thriller THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1963), which featured Smiley in a small, supporting role. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, many people predicted that Le Carr?'s career would die with the Cold War. But Le Carr? proved them wrong, finding newly relevant topics in the post-Cold-War world.
"Yes, le Carre writes thrillers, and one reads him for the plot. But one loves him for his use of language, his ability to set a scene, and the sheer near-Dickensian joy he takes in the characters themselves. Indeed, it is fair to say that le Carre's flair for character is matched by no thriller writer working today."
- Stephen Carter
07/23/2010
"[This] book that [Le Carre] completed and published in 1974 -- now regarded as perhaps the greatest spy novel written -- is so complex precisely because its form itself is a journey of exploration into the 'inside-out logic of the double-agent operation,' into the past and into the complex natures of loyalty and betrayal."
- Richard Rayner
06/07/2011
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