The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

By John le Carré

Book Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager, now a television series starring Tom Hiddleston.

The 50th-anniversary edition of the bestselling novel that launched John le Carr 's career worldwide

In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse--a desk job--Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service--with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.

Setting a standard that has never been surpassed, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a devastating tale of duplicity and espionage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143124757
• ISBN13: 9780143124757
• Release Date: September 2013
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold has got to be the greatest spy / espionage cold war novel of all t

Spy / espionage thriller lovers will want to read this one at least once, put it on your bucket list. Ive read it a dozen times or more and own several copies and various editions. A Super Le Carré fan and lover of George Smiley and the Circus! Thank You John for writing a Super Novel and likewise for your other titles as well. Ive read nearly all of them. I look forward to Agent Running in the Field published by Vikinh coming...

It really could be 'the greatest spy novel of all time'

In 1963, David Cornwell published his third novel. Because he was then an agent for British Intelligence, he used, as his government required, a pseudonym: "John Le Carré". Graham Greene, who pretty much invented the modern spy novel, called The Spy Who Came in from the Cold "the best spy story I ever read." It was. And the thing is, it's even better now. In a decade when James Bond was all the rage, "Spy" revolutionized...

A chilling tale of deceit and deception

This classic became a worldwide bestseller and was turned into a successful movie starring Richard Burton as the British spy Alec Leamas (AL). It also enabled John Le Carré (JLC) to say farewell to the British Foreign Office and devote himself full time to writing. First published in 1963, this book has not really aged. JLC's books are about what Americans call HUMINT (human intelligence), characters living under cover,...

The Cold War at its Coldest

A word of warning: "The Spy who Came in From the Cold" is not just an espionage thriller, it's a horror story.British MI-5 agent Alec Leamas, the eponymous hero of John Le Carre's brutal little espionage masterpiece "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold", discovers that being a secret agent at the height of the Cold War is a little like being a man outside in the cold, looking in on the friendly warmth of home and hearth but...

The Best of the Best

Arguably the best spy novel ever written. It was out of print for years. I envy the readers who can now buy this newly printed copy. I had to make due with a decades old moldy copy that fell apart as I read it. Not that I'm complaining--I loved the book! Le Carre knows his spy stuff. This is not some techno-filled, action-packed, lets-throw-in-a-plot-twist-for-the-h@ll-of-it book. This is a tightly-packed page turner...