In A Perfect Spy, his most autobiographical novel, John le Carr. Occasional jailbird”, as he wrote in his memoirs, The Pigeon Tunnel. The best books of the week.
The New York Times bestselling memoir from John le Carré, the legendary author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; and The Night Manager, now an Emmy-nominated television series starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.
From 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.
“Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur — by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“An illuminating, self-effacing and pleasurable inquiry into le Carré’s creative process, offering globe-spanning thrills of a different, but no less captivating kind than those associated with the novels.” —USA Today
“[Le Carré] is a polished raconteur, with an actor’s protean self-presentation, gifts of pace and timing, aptitude for entrances and exits.” —Wall Street Journal
“This incisive and witty memoir, by the man who long ago set the gold standard for modern espionage novelists, is a glittering treasure chest of great stories.” —The Seattle Times, 'The Best Books of 2016'
“The Pigeon Tunnel is the literary equivalent of a long night spent in the company of a grand storyteller, who has saved up a lifetime of his best tales to share with you over several rounds of fine scotch. The collection leaves the impression of a man who has gone to impossible lengths for his words, bringing the farthest reaches of the globe, some of its cruelest inhabitants, and a small handful of genuine heroes back home for all of us.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The name ‘John le Carré’ attracts the audience, but it’s David Cornwell confiding in us here, as if over dinner, then chatting long into the evening over snifters of brandy, or, as he unspools memories of Russia, glasses of vodka.” —Associated Press
“The Pigeon Tunnel contains what le Carré calls 'tiny bits of history caught in flagrante,' all of them borrowed from the lived experience of a novelist whose career has more closely resembled that of a war correspondent than a literary celebrity....Spies are le Carré’s preferred subject, but through them he grapples with larger human truths that transcend the cloak-and-dagger underworld.” —The American Scholar
'Looking back on a life rich enough to spawn multiple globe-spanning novels...le Carré showcases his grand, cinematic sense of place and...the ineffable quality that defines a professional raconteur....The inviting, drinks-beside-the-fire style from a master of the craft never overtakes the details of le Carré's remarkable life or his strong insider's opinions on issues of geopolitical import since World War II.' —Library Journal, starred review
“Always insightful, frequently charming, and sometimes sobering, the memorable tales told by master storyteller le Carré about his life will surely delight both longtime fans and newcomers.” —Publishers Weekly
'For all the cinematic glamour of le Carré's experiences, reflections on the workaday realities of fiction writing may provide the most engaging aspect of this colorful valediction. A satisfying recollection of a literary life well-lived.” —Kirkus Reviews
It is rare for an author to also be a good reader of their own work. However, remembering Adam Sisman’s discussion of John le Carré’s theatrical bent and abilities as a mimic in his book John le Carré: The Biography it’s not entirely surprising that le Carré’s narration of his novels is excellent.
Single & Single, a novel that is not among many critics or fans top ten le Carré novels, becomes utterly compelling as he takes on the voices of the characters he created. The opening scene, with a lawyer out of his depth in a foreign country and facing a brutal death, is perfectly pitched with le Carré slowly raising the tension and panic in the lawyer’s voice. Throughout the story he does an excellent job of distinguishing the various characters through vocal tone or dialect.
Looking into le Carré’s history of reading his own work, I found an article that states that he typically does his own abridging. Knowing that fact makes me feel much less guilty about listening to an abridged work of his. It’s also apparent that a lot of the abrigement is removing unnecessary clutter that isn’t needed in something being read out loud.
Listening to le Carré read it’s clear that he is that type of writer who hears his characters voices in his head and it shows why his dialogue is so strong. It also clarifies why Alec Guinness’ portrayal of Smiley could have thrown him off his game. For a writer such as him, not being able to hear a character’s voice could easily make it difficult to write.
Le Carré has also read a few other books not his own. He’s read an abridged version of both Treasure Island and Robert Graves’ Goodbye To All That for the BBC and Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.
From the previously referenced article and a coupleother sources I came up with the list below. At this point it appears he’s narrated nearly all of his novels. It looks like several of these readings are available on Audible or in an excellent collection of 16 titles from Bolinda –
Pigeon Tunnel John Le Carre
John le Carré read audiobooks
R – Read by le Carré
R – Call for the Dead (3 hrs)
R – A Murder of Quality (3 hrs)
R – The Spy who came in from the Cold (3 hrs)
R – The Looking Glass War (3 hrs)
R – A Small Town in Germany (3 hrs)
The Naive and Sentimental Lover
R – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (3 hrs)
The Honourable Schoolboy
R – Smiley’s People (3 hrs)
John Le Carre Best Books
R – The Little Drummer Girl (6 hrs)
R – A Perfect Spy (6 hrs)
R – The Russia House (3 hrs)
R – The Secret Pilgrim (9 hrs)
R – The Night Manager (5 hrs)
R – Our Game (5 hrs)
R – The Tailor of Panama (5 hrs)
R – The Constant Gardener (6 hrs)
R – Single and Single (6 hrs)
R – Absolute Friends (6.5 hrs)
The Mission Song
R –A Most Wanted Man (6 hrs)
R – Our Kind of Traitor (5 hrs)
R – A Delicate Truth (10.5 hrs)
R – The Pigeon Tunnel (10 hrs)
A Legacy of Spies
To help tracking these down, below are some of the publishers that put them out.
From a company called Listening for Pleasure le Carré read –
- Call for the Dead (3hr)
- A Murder of Quality (3hr)
- The Spy who Came in from the Cold (3hr)
- A Small Town in Germany (3hr)
- The Lookingglass War (3hr)
- Smiley’s People (3hr)
- The Little Drummer Girl (6hr)
- A Perfect Spy (6hr)
Random House Audio –
- The Russia House (3hr)
- The Secret Pilgrim
- The Night Manager (5hr)
- Our Game (5hr)
- The Tailor of Panama (5hr)
Time Warner Audio Books –
- Absolute Friends (6.5 hr)
- Single & Single (6 hrs)
- The Looking Glass War
Simon & Shuster Audio –
- The Constant Gardner (6hr)
- A Most Wanted Man (6hr)
John Le Carre Books
Random House Audio –
John Le Carre Pigeon Tunnel Download Free
- A Delicate Truth (10.5 hrs, unabridged)
- The Pigeon Tunnel (11.5 hrs, unabridged)
- A Legacy of Spies (TBD hrs, unabridged)