Silverview

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the City for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian's evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian's family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .

Silverview is the mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carré asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognise it.

© The Literary Estate of David 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

Valedictory, with a final turn of events that ends surprisingly but pleasingly in a cock-up, this is a satisfying coda to the career of the finest thriller writer of the 20th century

Guardian, Books of the Year

A compelling character study of a supposedly retired spy . . . Such was his rare command of language and unique understanding of how the world really works that I finished the book with a sense that the only real grown-up in the room had left

Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

As graceful an exit as we could hope for, the old master remaining at the top of his game to the last

Daily Express, Books of the Year

Nothing will ever match the Cold War spy novels written in his prime, but his later work illuminates themes of loyalty, betrayal and conflicting values in a modern context

New Statesman, Books of the Year

A superb example of le Carré’s enduring and exquisite genius

Daily Mail, Books of the Year

Gripping and involving, an elegant farewell by a much missed writer

Daily Express, Books of the Year

Silverview has many of le Carré’s characteristic virtues . . . engaging characters and three or four splendid set scenes in which veteran spooks stir the embers of old fires

Scotsman, Best Books of the Year

Silverview is a cat-and-mouse chase from an East Anglian seaside town to the Eastern Bloc. Published ten months after he passed away, it marks a fitting final work by the master of spy fiction

Irish Times, Books of the Year

A taut, thrilling spy novel. Read it as a tribute to a master

Stella, Books of the Year

Silverview has all the old magic . . . it offers a rewarding post-script to the long-distance spell-binders The Little Drummer Girl and Absolute Friends

Times Literary Supplement, Books of The Year

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
5.0
5.0
Excellent as expected. Once started difficult to put down.
cjulistener 17/11/2024

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