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A Legacy of Spies: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book—his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years
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.
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: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 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.
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“The combined performances of author John le Carré and narrator Tom Hollander in this new George Smiley espionage novel are a tour de force to be savored and cherished…Hollander expertly channels the tense coiled spring of the Smiley novels, coloring with accent when necessary, using pacing and pauses to keep you from pressing ‘stop,’ and in a warm, even-toned narrative voice, audibly savors every beautiful word. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
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“Le Carré’s prose remains brisk and lapidary. His wit is intact and rolls as if on casters…To read this simmering novel is to come in from the cold.”
— New York Times -
“The spy master’s latest Smiley novel entwines today’s world with a lost one…Ingenious.”
— Washington Post -
“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.”
— Atlantic -
“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.”
— Amazon.com -
“The miracle is that the author can revisit his best-known story and discover layer upon layer of fresh deception beneath it.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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#1 New York Times bestseller
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2017
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A 2017 Washington Post Top 10 Book in Thrillers and Mysteries
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A 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Best Thriller/Suspense Narration
A Legacy of Spies Listener Reviews
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Rikki Grubb, 12/26/2022
About John le Carré
John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (1931–2020), was an English author of espionage novels. Eight of his novels made the #1 spot on the New York Times bestsellers list between 1983 and 2017. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, his third book, secured him a worldwide reputation as one of the greatest spy novelists in history. Numerous major motion pictures have been made from his novels, as well as several television series. After attending the universities at Berne and Oxford, he taught at Eton and spent five years in the British Foreign Service, serving briefly in British Intelligence during the Cold War. Being a member of MI6 when he wrote his first novel, Call for the Dead in 1961 in Hamburg, it necessitated the use of a nom de plume, by which he continued to be known. His writing earned him several honorary doctorate degrees and the Somerset Maugham Award, the Goethe Medal, and the Olof Palme Prize.
About Tom Hollander
Tom Hollander is an English actor with a stunning array of film, television, theater, and audiobook credits to his name. After graduating from Cambridge University, he continued his career in theater before moving into film and television. He is perhaps best known for the role that brought him to the attention of mainstream movie audiences, that of petty tyrant Lord Cutler Beckett in the second and third installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. His audiobook narration of A Clockwork Orange won him an AudioFile Earphones Award.