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Silverview: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller!
In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he 'transcended the genre,' as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.
When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
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"Unfortunatelly, the very final book by the best author of the genre. The genre he has influenced probably more than any other author any other genre. As usually, impressive plot, very deeply embedded in the contemporary world of business and politics in the UK. Wonderfully read by Toby Jones whose portfolion contains many great roles, including Percy Alleline in the 2011 adaptation of "Tinker, taylor, soldier, spy""
— Wojciech W. (5 out of 5 stars)
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“A fine book centered on the lonely lives of spies and difficult choices they make when experience redefines the parameters of their mission for Queen and country.”
— Valdosta Daily Times -
“The plot unfolds with as much cryptic cunning as a reader could want.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Illuminate[s] nothing less than the slippery nature of truth and the very concept of loyalty. The novel is exquisitely poised in the present moment.”
— Irish Times (Dublin) -
“A low-key thriller with a brain and a conscience.”
— Minneapolis Star-Tribune -
“Jones takes on a range of accents, some of them less familiar to American listeners and some of them fairly subtle, including a character with a Polish and French background. But all of them are thoroughly convincing…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“Touching and satisfying.”
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -
One of:TIME's "34 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021
— The Guardian's "50 biggest books of autumn 2021 -
A fitting requiem for the career of the man who brought a new level of complexity and humanity to espionage fiction.
— Booklist, starred review -
[In Silverview,] le Carré plays out revelations about [the characters] slowly and teasingly, and, in the end, they’re as damning as you could wish. The real drama, however, is in the present, where all the characters are hopelessly intertwined and compromised by their loves and loyalties, none of them innocent. . . . The author’s last few novels have been increasingly valedictory, but this one is truly haunted by intimations of mortality.
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review -
“First-rate prose and a fascinating plot distinguish the final novel from MWA Grand Master le Carré ... This is a fitting coda to a remarkable career.
— Publishers Weekly -
[S]uperb. . . . Fraught as it is with reflections on death and dying, Silverview is tinged with an autumnal sense of loss and the self-examination of an old man looking back on his extraordinary career. John le Carré, one of the great analysts of the contemporary scene, has left us a minor masterpiece of secrets and lies in spy land.
— Evening Standard (UK) -
[Silverview] is a wonderful posthumous gift to his readers. . . . There will never be another John le Carré.
— Toronto Guardian -
[A] fitting conclusion to the long career of a writer who redefined an entire genre with the deceptive ease of pure genius. Le Carré’s compassion for his characters shines through, along with the gleam of humour. It’s also deeply thrilling, in the best way.
— The Irish Times
Awards
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A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2021
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A #1 Amazon bestseller
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A New York Times bestseller
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A Sunday Times (London) bestseller
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A Crime Reads Pick of Best Reviewed Books of the Month
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A BookPage Top Pick of the Month
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
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Shortlisted for the New York Festival Radio Award for Best Audiobook
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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 Toby Jones
Distinguished stage, television, and film actor Toby Jones was born in Hammersmith, London to actors Freddie Jones and Jennifer Heselwood. He studied Drama at the University of Manchester, and at L’École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris. His career began on the stage (and continues there), but film and television roles came soon after his studies. Toby made his film debut with a small role in Sally Potter‘s experimental take on Virginia Woolf‘s novel, Orlando, starring Tilda Swinton. Recently, he has had roles in the Hunger Games films and the Captain America films.