A naive British academic encounters a Russian oligarch in the Caribbean and the spider's web of global espionage unwinds in waves around them. The ambiguities of the secret world brought up to date. Le Carre at his best.

If you like John Le Carre try Charles Cumming
Maxim Jakubowski recommends: The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

Author shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2011.

The Lovereading view...

This is Le Carre at his spellbinding best.  His characters are so richly sketched and brilliantly imagined and there is no one to beat him for the quality of his dialogue which just slips off the tongue and into one’s subconscious but in such a way that it will never be forgotten.  Le Carre has proven here that he’s not just the King of the Cold War but also of the modern, murky and sometimes rather nasty world in which we now live.

Comparison: Charles Cumming, Daniel Silva, Frederick Forsyth
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Synopsis

Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.

Reviews

'If you want to know about the state of Britain today, forget the Booker shortlist. Just read John le Carre's latest thriller' Evening Standard

'Return of the master ... Having plumbed the devious depths of the Cold War, le Carre has done it again for our nasty new age' The Times

'Few recent plays have had dialogue as good, and few recent literary novels can boast a set of characters so vividly imagined. Our Kind of Traitor is a teasing, beguiling, masterly performance' Sunday Times

'A compelling tale of deceit, dialogue and the author's own despair John le Carre's greatest gift may be his ear, which allows him to pick up a tremor of fear in the softest voice or a false note in any exchange of words and play with them to his heart's content. He can therefore create, in dialogue, a trembling soundscape that has a pitch-perfect quality' -- James Naughtie Sunday Telegraph

About the Author

John le Carré is the author of many bestselling novels, several of which have achieved the status of modern classic. His works include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Smiley's People; The Little Drummer Girl; A Perfect Spy; The Russia House; and Absolute Friends.   Author photo © White Hare Ltd     More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation