The Tailor of Panama : Signed : First printing : No jacket

Carré, John Le

ISBN 10: 034068478X / ISBN 13: 9780340684788

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, United Kingdom, 1996

About this Item

True first British printing (full print run includes '1'). No jacket. Signed by the author in black ink directly to title page without dedication. Original ribbon marker present. Purple boards with quarter grey cloth with gold lettering to spine are near fine with a little pushing/bumping to a couple of corners, the odd small mark, odd small scratch, odd small bump to edges and a little pushing/rubbing to head/tail of spine. Pages are generally clean and the binding is tight. Pages are tanned. Odd small marks/spots of foxing to page edges, tops and bottoms. Very small crease to top corner of a few pages. Very occasional small mark to pages. No other faults. All books described honestly and accurately. Paypal accepted.

Seller Inventory # 010445

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Tailor of Panama : Signed : First printing : No jacket
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, London, United Kingdom
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 034068478X
• ISBN 13: 9780340684788
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

A thriller from the author of OUR GAME in which an old Etonian and spy is on a double mission in Panama to keep an eye on the political maneouverings leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that has so far eluded him.

Review

John le Carré, the greatest spy novelist of the Cold War era, continues his post-Cold War quest to define the genre he helped perfect. The classic spy novel was essentially a story of good (England, the United States) vs. evil (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union), in which good more or less prevailed. The Tailor of Panama is something else entirely: a spy novel with no spies in which the bad guys reap most of the rewards. It is also a viciously funny satire. The novel is set in Panama, where a plot is in place to make void the Panama Treaty, which would return control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians in 1999. At the center of events is Harry Pendel, the tailor of the title. Coerced into working for British Intelligence, he concocts out of whole cloth a left-wing movement with the goal of luring the American military to do the dirty work--invade Panama ŕ la 1989 and nullify the treaty. From the characters to the setting, le Carré has succeeded in setting new parameters for an old genre.