The Mission Song -- (6 CD's Compact Discs - Abridged - 6.5 Hours)

Think of David Oyelowo as a single musician playing all the instruments in a symphony. That is essentially what he manages in this inspired performance of John le Carré's suspense novel about a planned coup in the Congo and the interpreter of mixed parentage who wrestles with his conscience and his past to determine what he is to do about it. The cast of characters is wide and exotic, and Oyelowo's capacity to invest them not only with sumptuous accents but also distinctive, often biting personality is matchless. Can it really have been only one man in the narrator's recording booth? This virtuoso performance makes that seem impossible. --AudioFile Magazine WINNER OF AUDIOFILE EARPHONES

John le Carré's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold secured him a wide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. His recent novels include The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardener, and Absolute Friends.