A Legacy of Spies: A Novel - Softcover

Le Carré, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0735225133 ISBN 13: 9780735225138

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2018

Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. John le Carré’s new novel, Agent Running in the Field, is coming October 2019.

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.

About this title

Review

An Amazon Best Book of September 2017: John Le Carré, who you may know from the classic George Smiley spy novels, has returned after 25 years to bring us The Legacy of Spies, an interweaving of past and present storylines that allows new readers a way into these (I'm going to say it... perfect ) thrillers and will have longtime fans swooning. I have loved the Smiley series since I first read book one, so I was more than apprehensive when I heard Le Carré was reigniting the storyline with ‘Legacy’ after so many years (needlessly as it turns out). 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. --Penny Mann

About the Author

John le Carré was born in 1931 and attended the universities of Bern and Oxford. He taught at Eton and served briefly in British intelligence during the Cold War. For the last fifty years he has lived by his pen. He divides his time between London and Cornwall.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0735225133
• ISBN 13: 9780735225138
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272