Description

A beautiful 60th anniversary special edition of the first George Smiley novel, now with a new introduction by John le Carre

After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man’s death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan’s widow to find out what could have led him to such desperation. But on the very day that Smiley is ordered off the enquiry he receives an urgent letter from the dead man. Do the East Germans – and their agents – know more about this man’s death than the Circus previously imagined?

Le Carre’s debut novel, Call for the Dead, introduced the tenacious and retiring George Smiley in a gripping tale of espionage and deceit.

‘The greatest spy novelist of all time’ Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

Publisher Review

Intelligent, thrilling, surprising ... makes most cloak-and-dagger stuff taste of cardboard. * Sunday Telegraph * Brilliant. Realistic. Constant suspense. * Observer * The greatest spy novelist of all time ... astounding works of the imagination. -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph * Brilliant, popular, intelligent, thrilling, suspenseful, angry, original, masterful writing. Can't be topped. -- Armando Iannucci An extraordinary writer who brought literary lustre and lived insight to the spy yarn. -- Ian Rankin One of those writers who will be read a century from now. -- Robert Harris His Smiley novels are key to understanding the mid-20th century. -- Margaret Atwood What Joseph Conrad started, John le Carre enshrined and made modern. That is the real achievement of his great novels and why they will endure ... we should see him as our contemporary Dickens. -- William Boyd * New Statesman *