The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

George Smiley, Book 3

By: John Le Carré

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

The best spy novel of all time—Publishers Weekly

It’s the early 1960s, and the newly built Berlin Wall looms large. British intelligence officer Alec Leamas, caught in its shadow, feels the chill all too keenly: the preceding years have seen nearly every member of his Berlin spy network either murdered or captured. To him, the prospect of a desk job feels more like solace than purgatory. When he’s summoned to London by Control, it seems as though he’s finally being called home.

Control, however, still has other designs for Leamas: an assignment that’s equal parts dangerous and audacious. Leamas will get the chance to come home—but only after he’s gone deep undercover as a British turncoat in a bid to get revenge on Hans-Dieter Mundt, the counter-intelligence agent responsible for decimating his web of informants.

One last time, Alec Leamas steps out into the chill of East Berlin.

One of the most critically lauded and widely revered spy novels in literary history, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a tour de force that established John le Carré as a master of the genre.

©2012 John Le Carré (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Loved the theme of "cold."

Out of the Cold, out of spy life. Echoes of the Cold War. The forced coldness of a spy's life. Love, empathy secondary to the grisley mission.

Not Sure Why I Hadn't Already Read This

Not sure why I hadn’t already read this book. I enjoy spy novels especially set during the Cold War. This story seemed straight forward until it was not. Compartmentalization is necessary and understandable in the spy world, but this story had several layers of deception. It was apparent that Leamas was going to get burned, but the question was who did it? I went into the novel not expecting everything to work out, but I didn’t expect the book to be as tragic as it was. I liked Leamas as a character. Liz not so much. She was naïve, too idealistic, and annoying at the end.

Overall, I thought it was 4.5 stars, but I rounded up to 5 stars because of the Afterward in this book. It was interesting to hear the author's perspective about the book in 1989, 26 years after it was first published. I still can’t believe he wrote this book in under 6 weeks even though it is not a long book.

It took me awhile to get used to the narrator, but halfway through it I thought he was capturing the characters moods well, especially Leamas.