Magnus Pym, Counsellor at the British Embassy, is hosting a dinner party at his home in Vienna when he receives an unexpected telephone call that will profoundly affect his life. Once the guests have gone, Pym breaks the news to his wife, Mary: his father, Rick, is dead. In a state of shock, he says something Mary cannot understand - 'After all these years, I'm free.' Magnus flies back to England to attend the funeral - and doesn't return. As Mary and MI6 spymaster Jack Brotherhood desperately try to find out his ...
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Magnus Pym, Counsellor at the British Embassy, is hosting a dinner party at his home in Vienna when he receives an unexpected telephone call that will profoundly affect his life. Once the guests have gone, Pym breaks the news to his wife, Mary: his father, Rick, is dead. In a state of shock, he says something Mary cannot understand - 'After all these years, I'm free.' Magnus flies back to England to attend the funeral - and doesn't return. As Mary and MI6 spymaster Jack Brotherhood desperately try to find out his whereabouts, it soon becomes clear that Pym has been keeping secrets from both his family and his employers, the British Intelligence Service. Hiding out in a remote cottage in Devon, where he goes by the name of Mr Canterbury, Magnus begins to write his memoirs - retracing his rise and fall and revealing how Rick led him step by step into a double life of deception, broken promises and betrayal... This recording, adapted from the John le Carr??? novel by Rene Basilico, was believed lost from the BBC archive, but was rediscovered after almost twenty years and restored.
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Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.25, fair condition, Sold by Once Upon A Time Books rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tontitown, AR, UNITED STATES, published 1986 by Knopf.
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Fair in fair dust jacket. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear. It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear. It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.54, good condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1986 by Knopf.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.81, fair condition, Sold by Your Online Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Houston, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Bantam.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.88, fair condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Bantam.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.95, good condition, Sold by Seattle Goodwill rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Bantam.
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May have some shelf-wear due to normal use. Your purchase funds free job training and education in the greater Seattle area. Thank you for supporting Goodwill's nonprofit mission!
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1986 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1986 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2008 by Penguin Books Canada.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $2.05, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Penguin Books.
Add this copy of A Perfect Spy to cart. $2.05, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Penguin Books.
Truly absorbing on all levels, but especially on the narrator's early life - his childhood relationships and the way they form him into being, as the title names him, the perfect spy; that is someone thoroughly insecure, eager to conform to conflicting interests and socially adaptable as well as highly intelligent.
The quality of the writing is flawless; so many apt, diamond -like expressions - really on every page, so that you constantly go back to capture them. This, with the compulsive urge to move on, creates a tension of its own.
I believe this book represents le Carre at his best' It's a work of genius.
Steve S
Mar 21, 2013
Le Carre's most personal book
In an introduction to the Kindle version of this book, John Le Carre refers to this as his favorite among his books, at least until the much later CONSTANT GARDENER. In that introduction he describes his relationship with his own father, who was something of a con-man. I found the book profoundly moving.
