A Legacy of Spies

Chosen as a Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement the Evening Standard the Daily Telegraph the Guardian The TimesA brilliant novel of deception love and trust to join his supreme cannon Evening StandardVintage le Carré. Immensely clever breathtaking. Really not since The Spy Who Came in from the Cold has le Carré exercised his gift as a storyteller so powerfully and to such thrilling effect John Banville GuardianPeter Guillam former disciple of George Smiley in the British Secret Service has long retired to Brittany when a letter arrives summoning him to London. The reason? Cold War ghosts have come back to haunt him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of the Service are to be dissected by a generation with no memory of the Berlin Wall. Somebody must pay for innocent blood spilt in the name of the greater good . . .Utterly engrossing and perfectly pitched. There is only one le Carré. Eloquent subtle sublimely paced Daily MailSplendid fast-paced riveting Andrew Marr Sunday TimesRemarkable. It gives the reader at long last pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that have been missing for 54 years. Like wine le Carrés writing has got richer with age The TimesPerhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain. Hes in the first rank Ian McEwanOne of those writers who will be read a century from now Robert Harris Review Not since The Spy Who Came in From The Cold has le Carré exercised his gift as a storyteller so powerfully and to such thrilling effect -- John Banville ―GuardianGripping fast-paced . . . A splendid novel -- Andrew Marr ―Sunday TimesA brilliant novel of deception love and trust to join his supreme espionage canon -- Simon Sebag Montefiore ―Evening Standard Books of the YearPerhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain. He will have charted our decline and recorded the nature of our bureaucracies like no one else has. Hes in the first rank -- Ian McEwanIt gives the reader at long last pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that have been missing for 54 years . . . A Legacy of Spies does something remarkable . . . Like wine le Carrés writing has got richer with age ―The Timesle Carrés masterful new novel -- Jonathan Freedland ―The GuardianThe English canon has rarely seen an acclaimed novelist and popular entertainer sustain such a hot streak in old age . . . A Legacy of Spies achieves many things. Outstandingly it is a defiant assertion of creative vigour ―The ObserverA Legacy of Spies deploys a complex and ingeniously layered structure to make the past alive in the present once more . . . le Carré has not lost his touch ―Evening StandardHis writing is as crisp as ever . . . another tale of intrigue which will slip effortlessly into its place in the Smiley canon ―Daily ExpressWhat are we to make of Smiley? What is his game? Do we like him? Admire him? Every le Carré reader has wrestled with these questions-andA Legacy of Spies brings them to the fore more directly than any previous book ―Vanity FairIngenious ―Washington PostUtterly engrossing and perfectly pitched it is a triumph ―Daily MailWe are back in the more interesting territory of moral uncertainty and failure. What Smiley asks was he fighting for? ―TLSThe literary event of the Autumn ―Evening StandardI have re-readThe Spy Who Came In From The Cold over and over again since I first encountered it in my teens just to remind myself how extraordinary a work of fiction can be -- Malcolm GladwellHe can communicate emotion from sweating fear to despairing love with terse and compassionate conviction. Above all he can tell a tale. Formidable equipment for a rare and disturbing writer ―Sunday TimesThe best spy story I have ever read -- Graham Greene on The Spy Who Came In From The ColdA literary master for a generation ―ObserverGeorge Sm