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    Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel
    Unavailable
    Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel
    Unavailable
    Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel

    Written by John le Carré

    Narrated by Michael Jayston

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Featuring George Smiley, this New York Times bestseller is the third and final installment in the Karla Trilogy, from the author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

    Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman…

    A very junior agent answers Vladimir's call, but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Service considers the old spy to be anything except a senile has-been who can't give up the game-until he's shot in the face at point-blank range. Although George Smiley (code name: Max) is officially retired, he's summoned to identify the body now bearing Moscow Centre's bloody imprimatur. As he works to unearth his friend's fatal secrets, Smiley heads inexorably toward one final reckoning with Karla-his dark "grail."

    In Smiley's People, master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Our Kind of Traitor John le Carré brings his acclaimed Karla Trilogy, to its unforgettable, spellbinding conclusion.

    With an introduction by the author.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 9, 2011
    ISBN9781101573068
    Unavailable
    Smiley's People: A George Smiley Novel
    Author

    John le Carré

    John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Constant Gardner, The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Tailor of Panama, and Single & Single. He lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

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    Reviews for Smiley's People

    4.5/5

    21 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What is so exhilarating and fulfilling about reading le Carré is the sense of genuine intelligence at play, both in the characters and in the author. There are different ways of trying to convey great cleverness in a literary character: one approach is to give them superhuman deductive skills à la Sherlock Holmes, you know – I perceive, sir, that you have recently returned from a hunting excursion in Wiltshire and that your wife's tennis partner owns a dachshund called Gerald — But my dear fellow, how could you possibly?! — Quite elementary; the leaf that adheres to your left boot-sole is unmistakably from a holm oak, one of the rarest English trees, a fine specimen of which grows outside Wiltshire's best-frequented hunting lodge; you may perhaps have glanced at my recent monograph on the subject in the Evening Post which proved so useful in the recent unpleasantness concerning the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro… And so on. Don't get me wrong, I love this stuff – but it's a game, it's amusing, it's manifestly nonsense. The thrill of what le Carré does in the Karla trilogy – and I don't believe anyone does it better – is of a completely different order. You believe it: the leaps of intuition are logical and motivated, and just slightly out of your reach, so that you constantly feel both flattered to be keeping up and somewhat awestruck at how they always make the connections a bit faster than you do. It's rather like how I feel when I play through top-level chess games, the sense that you can just about follow why they're doing what they're doing; the deceptive conviction, as you watch an unexpected rook sacrifice, that it all makes perfect sense and that you would undoubtedly have thought of the same move yourself.This is hard to do as a writer. Because writers are often not that smart, even when they're talented. Le Carré writes as though he's smarter than all his readers, and when I read him I'm convinced. The thrills in these books come not from action sequences, but from the plausibility of the dialogue: I was more on edge during Smiley's calm ‘interrogation’ of Toby Esterhase here than I've been in any number of car chase or bomb-defusion scenes. What to say next? How to press them in exactly the right way, without scaring them off?In a sense this book is composed simply of a number of these intense, magesterially-written duologues stacked together, a stichomythic layer-cake: Smiley and Lacon, Smiley and Mikhel, Smiley and Esterhase, Smiley and Connie, Smiley and Grigoriev, Smiley and Alexandra…and always, at the end, the prospect of somehow reaching the the endgame conversation, between Smiley and Karla. (It would be quiet and undramatic, and fascinating.) But then again, the whole trilogy is that conversation being played out.These dialogues are stitched together with a prose style that is economical and unclichéd. The plot is thick and chewy and le Carré does not cheat with his exposition. Perhaps overall [book:The Honourable Schoolboy18990] was my favourite – I just love the oblique portrayal of foreign reporting – but this is a stupendous end to a brilliant trilogy. A lot of books are clever – ‘oh that's clever,’ you might say after a literary trick or a narrative sleight-of-hand. These books are intelligent. That's rare enough in fiction as it is, and the fact that it comes in so-called genre fiction just shows how distracting such ghettos can be.
    • 4/5
      A very mixed bag. The hyper-reality that the young man experiences while making the drop is written very well. The sodden emotionalism is poor. Karla is finally captured because of his "love" for a daughter with whom he has barely ever interacted. Emotions and principles are arbitrary counters in this well-written let-down.
    • 4/5
      Much better than the Honourable Schoolboy, but let down by the ending and Karla's weakness which doesn't seem that comprimising.
    • 4/5
      This is the second John Le Carré book I've read. I found the first three quarters of the book gripping, but then the action moved to Switzerland and time seemed to stand still. It felt like it took forever for anything to happen. Perhaps that's what espionage is like - loads of action, and then loads of planning and waiting, and then a fairly flat conclusion.
    • 5/5
      Very satisfying conclusion to the Karla trilogy. Smiley is one of the classic British characters, up there with Sherlock Holmes for me.
    • 5/5
      irst of all I have to say that this book is one of the best spy thrillers I’ve ever read.

      The plot is slow, but in a good way. There are several characters involved, some more important than others, but everybody fits in the story. Sometimes it may seem that things don’t make sense and you may wonder how some of the characters are connected, but everything makes sense when you reach the end. All the questions you had while reading will be answered.

      The main character is George Smiley. In this book he is already retired and living a quiet life until he has to go back to his job. People who are expecting lots of action and bullets will be disappointed. Smiley’s greatest weapon is not a gun or a knife. It’s his mind.

      Something I liked about this book is that the bad people (bad from Smiley’s point of view) don’t behave the way they do just because of the Soviet Union. It is interesting to see how most of them have more personal reasons and how those are discovered.

      This is an amazing story that I recommend to everybody who likes good spy novels set during the Cold War.
    • 4/5
      The easiest to follow of the trilogy, and the most elegiac in tone. I enjoyed it, and it was a fitting end.
    • 4/5
      Again another classic le Carre and another classic performance by Alec Guiness.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book is the thrilling third novel of the George Smiley trilogy in which he finally captures his arch nemesis, the Russian spy master, Karla. Of the three books, I prefer this one. I thoroughly enjoyed these books/ I didn't read them when they were first published I probably wouldn't have understood them. But now, with advancing years I can appreciate them more.
    • 5/5
      his is the final volume in John Le Carre's Karla trilogy and the seventh of the George Smiley books. I have read each of the volumes several times and I still enjoy them. Karla is a Russian spy master who in the earlier volumes almost put the Circus out of business using Bill Haydon as a double agent at the top levels of the British spy agency. Karla utilized the relationship between Haydon and Smiley's compulsively adulterous wife Ann to conceal Haydon's treachery from George. Now Karla is undone by his love for a girl who is discovered by the General, Vladimir. The story begins with the murder of Vladimir by a hollow point bullet that leaves his face unrecognizable. All in a time called the Cold War that we thought would never end.Before he was murdered Vladimir telephoned the Circus to speak to Max. That is his vicar, George Smiley. The General had two proofs and insisted on Moscow rules. It was about the Sandman. After Vladimir was murdered the new boys at the Circus brought George out of retirement to clean things up. George found a cigarette pack hidden up in a tree and began Karla's downfall.The plot has a full cast of characters each with a small piece of the story. Maria Ostrokova is a Russian emigre in Paris who writes the General out of fear for a daughter she has never seen. The General and Otto Leipzig are Baltic emigres with a shared hatred for the Soviet system. Smiley finds Otto murdered and recovers his piece of the puzzle from Claus Kretzchmer, a German porn entrepreneur. Mikhel, proud of his days in the Estonian cavalry, is a comrade of the General. Villem, or William, Craven does a critical errand for the General based on their family ties from Estonia. Counsellor Grigeriov is an incompetent agent whose fears his wife above all else in the world. George brings Toby Esterhase and Connie or Mother Russia out of forced retirement to assist him. Alexandra Borisovna, a Russian girl forced to live in a religious asylum, is the key to Smiley's revenge.There is a last visit with Ann while Smiley patiently puts together the pieces of the story. He once again shows his spy craft while interrogating Grigoriev while reading from a blank sheet of paper. The interrogation is a masterful scene, crackling with tension, presided over by the calm and patient George. That's all I can tell or I will give away the ending.I have read this book several times and still enjoy my visits with George Smiley. The contrast between George Smiley's poignant humanity and the cold realities of the spy world are a unique combination created by a skilled writer. I heartily recommend reading this book.
    • 4/5
      The final book in the Karla trilogy. What has got the Estonian emigre group in London in turmoil? Why has Karla been trying to create a legend for a girl? Smiley's final campaign against the elusive Karla definitely perked me up after the struggle I had reading "The Honourable Schoolboy".
    • 5/5
      This used to be my least favorite of the George Smiley books. Honestly I think when I was younger I just couldn't figure out the intricacies of the alliances between all these refugees who seemed so old and odd to me. Now they feel just right - with romantic pasts and possibly romantic presents and still committed to their cause, no matter how quixotic the quest.This book is much more like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in tone. It details various interconnected yet solitary quests and hones in on George Smiley's pursuit of Karla, his white whale. The first novel in the trilogy is laced with betrayal, the second with the end of Empire (both American and English), and this one is all about personal endings and the tragedies that come from choices made or neglected. It's a melancholy book, even in its ending, artfully acknowledging that the journey is almost always more satisfying than the destination.
    • 5/5
      As if walking at Smiley’s side through Tinker Tailor and then the Honorable Schoolboy; to do so again in this last book in the trilogy becomes a riveting experience. From its start in Paris to its final bone chilling scene, this book is a must read. Still as vibrant today as when the Cold War raged.
    • 5/5
      Here, in his series of spy novels featuring George Smiley, author Le Carre is at his best. The novels that followed somehow never came up to the standard set with the characterizations of George Smiley, the Foreign Office bureaucrats and all the players connected with the Circus. George Smiley, who cut his teeth in the spy business as a Brithish spy on the run in WWII Germany, has been retired from his job in the Circus, the chief intelligence unit in England. He is brought back because of his history with a Circus informer who has been shot. Through the winding passages of his past associations in the Circus, George is brought into a contest with his old rival, Karla of KGB fame. Wonderfully developed characters in a fast moving, well-written book.
    • 5/5
      Far better than the first, better than the second.
    • 5/5
      In this John le Carre novel we have the final confrontation between George Smiley and Karla, his long time nemesis. This is my first book by the author and I did not feel like I was starting in the middle. So you do not need to read the two that precede it. This is not just a spy novel, but also a well-written book. And the author is able to allow us to have a strong sense of picturing the characters. They are well thought out and three-dimensional. Our hero George Smiley is brought out of retirement by some antics and death of an old retired contact. And we follow Mr. Smiley as he works to solve the case or close it any way he can. Of course George Smiley does his utmost to solve it. And it is this journey he takes that leads us to his old time foe from the Soviet Union, Karla. Smiley does not seem like a spy, but his methods, instincts and powers of observations are exceptional. But what any person attuned to his surroundings would have. It is nice to have a normal human hero. One who shoes us his range of emotions and thought process. And the realistic ending. Yes it may seem anticlimactic. But I prefer the realism of it all.
    • 5/5
      My favorite story, but not as well written as "Tinker Tailor."
    • 4/5
      Another good Le Carre. A story that's gripping, interesting background material,non-predictability. Recommended.