Silverview
The Sunday Times Bestseller
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3.8 • 140 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S 2022 SUMMER PICKS
'Le Carré at his finest' Mick Herron, Guardian
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 after only a couple of months into his new career, Edward, a Polish émigré, shows up at his door with a very keen interest in Julian's new enterprise and a lot of knowledge about his family history. And 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 finest, wisest storyteller' Richard Osman
'A towering writer' Margaret Atwood
'A literary giant' Stephen King
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First-rate prose and a fascinating plot distinguish the final novel from MWA Grand Master le Carré (1931–2020). Two months after leaving a banking job in London, 33-year-old Julian Lawndsley gets a visit from an eccentric customer, Edward Avon, just before closing time at the bookshop Julian now runs in East Anglia. When Julian asks the man what he does, he replies, "Let us say I am a British mongrel, retired, a former academic of no merit and one of life's odd-job men." The next morning, Julian runs into Edward at the local café, where Edward claims he knew Julian's late father at Oxford. Julian later learns that Edward, a Polish emigré, was recruited into the Service years before. Julian senses something is off, as does the head of Domestic Security for the Service, who's investigating Edward's wife, an Arabist and outstanding Service intelligence analyst. While laying out the Avons' intriguing backstories and their current activities, le Carré highlights the evils spies and governments have perpetrated on the world. Many readers will think the book is unfinished—it ends abruptly—but few will find it unsatisfying. This is a fitting coda to a remarkable career.
Customer Reviews
Typical story from the master!
A little short of pages, however if you are a John La Carrre fan you wil not be disappointed.
A story lost in time
John le Carré is my religion. That should say it all. And “Silverview” won’t change that. But…
This is, in my view, the weakest of his works. Which, of course, is a harsh judgement, since eventually even the sharpest minds grow old, and rightly so. It won’t taint my love for his work, but this book doesn’t feel like his “real” work, either. I think he would have had his doubts about this book as it is in its entirety himself. Judge him on everything else before this, but, please, not on this.
Very good
Excellent book