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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel
Unavailable
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel
Unavailable
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel
Audiobook12 hours

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel

Written by John le Carré

Narrated by Michael Jayston

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

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).

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 9, 2011
ISBN9781101573044
Unavailable
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel
Author

John le Carré

John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Constant Gardner, The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Tailor of Panama, and Single & Single. He lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

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Reviews for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Rating: 4.445945945945946 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really fun, intricate stuff. I found it hard to follow at times--lots of names, and psuedonyms, and spies being spy-ish--but the plot took me, regardless. Still relevant in its politics, too, even if it was written during/at the end of the Cold War. Gary Oldman will make a wonderful George Smiley, but now I want to see the BBC TV miniseries with Sir Alec Guinness, too.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have such a strange nostalgia for British Cold War spy stuff.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed reading this. I saw the film with Gary Oldman in the role of George Smiley, so knew what happened, and yet that didn't spoil the book for me at all. Le Carré was a craftsman of the English language, and his descriptions of the characters and their actions were a joy to read. There are subtle differences between the book and the film, as well, with added depth from certain characters. It's a really visual book and definitely worth a read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Le Carre is my favorite author, and this is my favorite of his books. Such depth! I had to reread it several times to make sure I didn't miss anything. It may have the best developed characters of any novel I've ever read. Part of the genius of it is that Le Carre gives you just enough in the way of hints about the history of each character that you are able to fill in the many years of their lives with vast detail. That is a trick I aspire to master. Don't let the recent film with Gary Oldman turn you off (but do rent the wonderful 1979 BBC production starring Sir Alec Guinness). This is a masterpiece. In my opinion, it is the gold standard of spy novels, if not all modern fiction.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Tense read. Informative insight into the world of espionage.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    While this book started out rather slow, it soon picked up and had me glued to the pages. John le Carre does a good job of going inside the main character’s head and letting us see much of what is going on through both his perspective and the outside perspective of the narrator. At points in the book he is able to transition flawlessly from memories the main character has to what he is learning about those events he’s remembering in the present day. These transitions helped me to really enjoy the book. As an avid reader, I can appreciate how the author kept me guessing through most of the book, making it very hard to be able to guess what would happen next. As with most suspense books and spy novels, the beginning of the book can be hard to follow until you get a hang on whom all the people are that are mentioned and what their relationships are. But when you have everything under your belt, the chapters fly by. The way le Carre writes made me not want to stop reading just to find out what happened next. If you’re someone who enjoys spy novels or suspense/thriller books, then I would definitely recommend this book to you. It may sound cliché, but I can think of no better way to describe this book than as an ‘exciting read,’ because that’s just what it is. Not being able to guess the ending halfway through makes you feel a need to finish this book not because you feel required to, but because you feel a need to know what’s going to happen.Spencer B.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a thriller with a complex plot and good detailed character development. I found I couldn't read it when I was tired or I would miss crucial details. It kept me on my toes! I appreciated that Smiley wasn't just some flashy spy, but was a middle-aged man with real-life problems. I definitely want to continue with the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm so bad at remembering plot details that I know a year from now I won't remember the identity of the mole. In fact, after about 120 pages, I had to go back and skim what I'd already read and take notes, because I was so lost. But never mind plot - this is all about character and tone. Nights I stayed up way too late reading it, and spent my days worrying about George Smiley.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I found John Le Carre's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" tedious. I'm not sure if that was a failing of the book or me -- it's a book that demands a lot of attention to detail. I read this one on and off while on huge group camping trip so I was often distracted and lost track of the story. It is not the light thriller I was expecting.The novel centers around George Smiley, a retired British agent who is called upon to spy on the spies. It becomes clear early on that someone high up in the "Circus" -- the British intelligence circle -- is a Russian mole. Through flashbacks and interviews, Smiley compiles the information he needs to ferret this person out.I'm not sure why, but the answer seemed fairly obvious to me (perhaps because I wasn't clearly following some of the book's twists and turns.) So many characters were introduced at once, I was mostly confused about who people were until midway through the book. Overall, this book really fell flat for me. I'm not sure why, really... perhaps espionage just isn't my genre or maybe I would have enjoyed it more at home, when I had more will to concentrate on the gazillions of little details.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The first spy book I've read since James Bond in junior high. I just don't care about the McGuffins, I'm not really interested in the cold war, and I don't have the kind of devious mind that enjoys the convoluted plots. Well, it kept me interested, I can't say it wasn't a page-turner. But as I'd feared, i was confused by who was who and especially by what their motives were. I'm not good at reading between the lines. In the end I was more interested in Smiley and Ann - how did they get together, what attracted her to him. He's painted as being frowsy and frumpish (and yet kind of a Mary Sue who always knows where to look, what to do, and what to say or how long to wait for an answer.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book having seen the movie, which was probably just as well because the book demands a lot from the reader, and I was grateful for a few anchors to help me navigate the detail. But even knowing the story did not detract my enjoyment of the book one bit - I was completely immersed, and resented having to put it down to sleep and work. The central character, George Smiley, is charged by the Minister, with learning the identiy of the russian mole from amongst a table of 4 former colleagues. He was forcibly retired, and cut loose from them in recent history, and must do his research in secrecy, with the assistance of loyal insider, and former insider, lieutenants.It is a thriller of the highest order, where many of the 'good guys' at one time or another face the danger of discovery in their pursuit of information, or attempts to create a response.Smiley is a fascinating character - possessing an incredibly clear insight to human behaviour and motivation, as well as a genius in piecing together the unwieldy narrative - but he has a few quirks and blind spots of his own. Most interesting was his meeting with his nemesis in India. A brilliant story and a huge, entertaining read - I look forward to completing the Karla trilogy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As much as I like John Le Carre, this is not one of my favorite novels. A little too dark and murky for my taste.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    George Smiley was forced into early retirement from Circus during a change in regime. But when the possibilities of a mole within the secret service reporting back to Russia and the nebulous figure of Karla arise, Smiley is brought in to investigate. In the waning of the glorious days of the Cold War, Smiley will return back to the intrigues and the men involved in them to root out the possibility that Circus no longer serves Britain.le Carre is a big name in spy fiction for a reason, and this novel is a perfect illustration of why. Brilliantly evoking the later days of the Cold War in the mid-1970s, we explore the world of men that came in to preserve Britain and the Empire in WWII and are now embroiled in a conflict where victories are nebulous at best. The novel is far more about the intellectual suspense of the spy game, and while there is a decent dose of action, it is the slow and intense burn of Smiley's hunt for answers about what happened prior to his being ousted from Circus and his search for the Russian mole that makes the novel such a delicious read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This rating is almost entirely my fault, and I'm sure the book deserves better than this.I unfortunately saw the movie first. I knew it was a bad idea--whenever I see the movie before reading the book, I become incapable of viewing the two as separate entities (for some reason, this is not a problem when I read the book first). I kept seeing Gary Oldman and Colin Firth and Toby Jones as I read which was unfortunate because their movie selves didn't always match the book descriptions. This caused a bit of dissonance for me. I also kept hunting for the things that happened in the movie, and this led me to appreciate the overall experience of consuming the story less.It took about two-thirds of the book before I could start separating it from the movie, and even then, I couldn't do it all the way. (Coincidentally, this is also when the book starts to get really exciting.)In short: I will give this book another try in a few years after I've forgotten the movie, and I fully expect to give it a more glowing recommendation then.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After 3 tries, this is the first le Carre book I have finished. It starts very slowly; the plot starts somewhere around page 95. The writing style is mostly free of flourishes and poetry, but it's dry, and filled with British jargon. A glossary in the US edition would have been helpful. Packed with character names; at times as confusing as a Tolkien novel. Very good ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found this engrossing, riveting, but sometimes a bit over my head with the intelligence slang. It inspired me to do a little research on British Intelligence moles like the Cambridge 5 and on Le Carre's own background. Fascinating material and all uniquely British. Le Carre's style is so much more suspenseful than say, Fleming, who is more entertaining for his sheer campyness, intentional or not. Le Carre however is entertaining for the very real intrigue he portrays. He explores moral ambiguity and has a way of making the Cold War seem that much more creepy. We all want to rest assured that something, somebody up there in the higher echelons of government is certain about some level of security, even though we suspect this is just a lie we tell ourselves for comfort. I mean, who wants to think about the very real possibility of nuclear fallout everyday. We all have lives to live. Le Carre does a fine job of highlighting that insecurity for me. Human fallibility is universal and human passion is often the culprit. The game is so fun to follow when Le Carre is writing it, but knowing that he worked the job for real gives me the jitters when I consider his plot and their basis on real double agents.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An astonishing, gripping tour-de-force. I cannot fault this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found the end of this book more enjoyable than what led up to it. The story was so good I could barely put it down, but at the same time it was very difficult for me to follow. This was my introduction to the spy genre and I will absolutely read the rest of the series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found this book very hard going.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened via audio and my only regret was I was not reading it straight through. The characters are brilliantly portrayed, I enjoyed learning more about MI-6 and the inner circle via flashbacks and George Smiley was a character one could not help but admire. I highly recommend Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to anyone looking for an intellectually stimulating spy thriller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing. Confusing and complicated, but amazing. One of the best first chapters I've ever read. I only wish the characters in the first chapter had been in more of the rest of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Can't believe I've never read this book or seen the film. But with a new film coming out decided to read the book. Loved it but had to concentrate and it took me a few chapters to really get into it. Smiley has one complicated brainand it is razor sharp. Have visions of Alec Guinness in the role of Smiley but am going to read the rest of the trilogy.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Slow and boring, this book is supposedly filled with "heavy, atmospheric intrigue" with its backdoor, secret intelligence games, but the suspense and pace are more akin to a group of old men arguing about the weather at the library. This book is a relic of the past, for an older generation who can't even fathom James Bond, let alone a Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer. The book takes an eternity to get going, and then goes nowhere.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the great spy novels. Set at the height of the Cold War it recounts the search for a "mole" within the upper echelons of the Secret Service. George Smiley is brought back from "retirement" to investigate the possibility that one of the four officer at the head of the Service might in fact be a long-established Russian spy,Le Carre offers none of the glamour and fantasy world cavortings of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Smiley and his associates have to grapple with the shabby and entirely mundane underbelly of the espionage world, working back through the files, and eye-witness accounts of previous failed operations.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "A modern masterpiece" says the blurb, and I couldn't agree more. Brilliantly written, plotted and imagined, LeCarre novels deftly describe a modern world in which reality, idealogy, and morality are all relative - and yet, encouragingly, good men still manage to find paths through the morass. In this and many of his other works, LeCarre does an amazing job of depicting espionage as a shadowy parallel universe in which everything familiar is unsettlingly unfamiliar, from the language the intelligence community invents for itself, to the precarious lives his characters live, to the disconcerting way in which the ordinary detritus of human life - newspapers, milk bottles, church pews - comes to be imbued with chilling significance. George Smiley, the reluctant hero of this tale, is a reimagined version of the chivalric English hero, blending personal courage and dedication to duty with all-too-human vulnerability. There are simply too many books in the world worth reading to devote much time to reading books over again. However, this is one book I find myself revisiting again and again - maybe because every one in a while, I like to believe (if only for 300 pages) that, despite all the ambiguity of our "modern" world, people who believe in duty and honor still exist.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My introduction to Le Carre, nicked from my dad, and never returned.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The conversations, so arch and full of Circus jargon, are just as I remember them from the TV series. Surprisingly Beryl Reid was not exaggerating Connie's eccentric pattern of speech at all! As I read it, I kept wondering how long it would have taken me to guess the identity of the mole if I hadn't already known. I think you could guess, there were quite a lot of clues scattered about.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I think I've always been a bit in love with George Smiley. There's something so appealing to me about him - aging and ordinary-looking but with a brilliant mind. He makes sense to me as a spy who probably should be someone who can blend into a crowd.I read this series first when I was in high school and have re-read it about every ten years or so sense. I enjoy it immensely each time. This is the first in the series and it's smart, well-plotted, riddled through with paranoia and betrayal - appropriate to its times when you consider it was first published in 1974, but equally appropriate to these times.This whole series is le Carré writing at his best, reinventing the espionage novel, and creating a group of characters that will move into your heart and take up residence, knocking on the door occasionally to come outside and visit again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    To be honest Tinker Tailor was one of the most confusing books I have ever tried to read. For starters, it's one of those start-in-the-middle-of-the-plot books. The only successful way to catch the reader up on what has been missed is a series of flashbacks. I kept getting the flashbacks confused with the here and now. Another thing I kept getting confused was the language. le Carre has a whole series of secret words to describe the Cold War spy game. For example, a babysitter is really a bodyguard.The plot itself is really straightforward inasmuch as an espionage thriller could be. George Smiley is pulled out of retirement as a British Intelligence officer. He is recruited to uncover a Russian mole deep in the BIA's ranks. Of course, that it the simplest, dumbed-down plot synopsis I could make. Many reviewers have called Tinker Tailor "complicated" and I would have to agree.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Possibly my favourite book ever, I've read it 6 or 8 or 10 times over several decades. I very much enjoyed some of Le Carre's earlier and later novels, particularly the Smiley sequels (Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley's People), but this was my favourite. The British TV mini-series with Alec Guiness was, I thought, a good adaptation and I'll always associate Guiness, Ian Richardson, Ian Bannon, Patrick Stewart et al. with their characters in the novel. There are other good authors who wrote in that genre but none of them ever captured me like Le Carre. If you've never read it, do!