Audiobooks by John Le Carré

"Brought to you by Penguin. Magnus Pym - ranking diplomat, consummate Englishman, loving husband, secret agent - has vanished. Has he defected? Gone to ground? As the hunt for Pym intensifies, the secrets of his life are revealed: the people he has loved and betrayed, the unreliable con-man father who made him, the two mentors who moulded and shaped him, and now wish to claim this perfect spy as their own. Described by le Carré as his most autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy is a devastating portrayal of a man who has played different roles for so long, he no longer knows who he is. 'Le Carré understood that espionage is an extreme version of the human comedy, even the human tragedy. A Perfect Spy will very likely remain his greatest book' New Yorker 'The best English novel since the war' Philip Roth ©1986 David Cornwell (P)2025 Penguin Audio"

John Le Carré (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Smiley's People

"Brought to you by Penguin. THE SEVENTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL A Soviet defector has been assassinated on English soil, and George Smiley is called back to the Circus to clear up - and cover up - the mess. But what he discovers sends him delving into the past, on a trail through Hamburg and Paris to Cold War Berlin - and a final showdown with his elusive nemesis, Karla. The concluding part of le Carré's celebrated Karla Trilogy, Smiley's People sees the last confrontation between the indefatigable spymaster and his great enemy, as their rivalry comes to a shattering end. 'An enormously skilled and satisfying work' Newsweek 'We are all Smiley's people, a kind of secular god of intelligence' New Yorker © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Honourable Schoolboy

"Brought to you by Penguin. THE SIXTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL George Smiley, now acting head of the Circus, must rebuild its shattered reputation after one of the biggest betrayals in its history. Using the talents of journalist and occasional spy Jerry Westerby, Smiley launches a risky operation uncovering a Russian money-laundering scheme in the Far East. His aim: revenge on Karla, head of Moscow Centre and the architect of all his troubles. In the second part of John le Carré's Karla Trilogy, the battle of wits between Smiley and his Soviet adversary takes on an even more dangerous dimension. 'Energy, compassion, rich and overwhelming sweep of character and action' The Times 'A remarkable sequel ... the achievement is in the characters, major and minor ... all burned on the brain of the reader' The New York Times © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), Simon Russell Beale (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

"Brought to you by Penguin. Alex Leamas is tired. It's the 1960s, he's been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at last - but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, Leamas's mission may prove to be the worst thing he could ever have done. In le Carré's breakthrough work of 1963, the spy story is reborn as a gritty and terrible tale of men who are caught up in politics beyond their imagining. ©1963 le Carré Productions (P)2025 Penguin Audio"

John Le Carré (Author), Simon Russell Beale (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Mission Song

"Brought to you by Penguin. As an interpreter of African languages, Bruno Salvador is much in demand. He makes it a principle to remain neutral - no matter what he hears. But when he is summoned on a secret job for British Intelligence, he is told he will have to get his hands dirty. His mission is to help bring democracy to the Congo - democracy that will be delivered at the end of a gun barrel. The Mission Song is an excoriating depiction of a corrupt world where loyalty can be bought and war is simply an opportunity to settle old scores. 'Simply astonishing ... a formidably sophisticated work of fiction' Charles Cumming 'Mesmerising' Sunday Times ©David Cornwell 2006 (P)Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), David Oyelowo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

"Brought to you by Penguin. THE FIFTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL A mole, implanted by Moscow Centre, has infiltrated the highest ranks of the British Intelligence Service, almost destroying it in the process. And so former spymaster George Smiley has been brought out of retirement in order to hunt down the traitor at the very heart of the Circus - even though it may be one of those closest to him. The first part of le Carré's acclaimed Karla Trilogy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy sees the beginning of the stealthy Cold War cat-and-mouse game between the taciturn, dogged Smiley and his wily Soviet counterpart. 'Le Carré's masterwork' William Boyd 'A great thriller, the best le Carré has written' Spectator ©1974 le Carré Productions (P)2025 Penguin Audio"

John Le Carré (Author), Simon Russell Beale (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Looking Glass War

"Brought to you by Penguin. THE FOURTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL When the Department - faded since the war and busy only with bureaucratic battles - hears rumours of a missile base near the West German border, it seems the perfect opportunity to regain some standing in the Intelligence world. Desperate for glory and determined to outdo their rivals at the Circus, including George Smiley, they send deactivated agent Fred Leiser back into East Germany, armed only with some schoolboy training and his memories of the war. In the land of eloquent silence that is Communist East Germany, Leiser's fate is no longer his own. Showing men carried away by fear and pride, The Looking Glass War is a powerful, moving story of human frailty. 'A devastating and tragic record of human, not glamour, spies' New York Herald Tribune 'A book of rare and great power' Financial Times ©1965 le Carré Productions (P)2025 Penguin Audio"

John Le Carré (Author), Prasanna Puwanarajah (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Secret Pilgrim

"Brought to you by Penguin. The Cold War is over and Ned has been demoted to the training academy. He asks his old mentor, George Smiley, to address his passing-out class. There are no laundered reminiscences; Smiley speaks the truth - perhaps the last the students will ever hear. As they listen, Ned recalls his own painful triumphs and inglorious failures, in a career that took him from the Western Isles of Scotland to Hamburg and from Israel to Cambodia. He asks himself: Did it do any good? What did it do to me? And what will happen to us now? In this final Smiley novel, the great spy gives his own humane and unexpected answers. © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), Michael Jayston (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Most Wanted Man

"Brought to you by Penguin. An illegal Muslim immigrant arrives in Hamburg with a traumatic past and the key to a fortune held in a private bank. He says his name is Issa. To the idealistic young human rights lawyer Annabel, determined to save him from deportation, he is a worthy cause. To the intelligence services of Britain, Germany and America, however, he is a potential jihadist - and a pawn between them as they seek to make a kill in the war on terror. A Most Wanted Man is a gripping and disquieting story of paranoia, disillusionment and betrayal in the moral no-man's land of the post-9/11 world. 'One of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published' Guardian 'A first-class novel about the most pressing concerns of our time' Daily Telegraph © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), Milo Twomey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Single & Single

"Brought to you by Penguin. Why was an English lawyer shot dead in Turkey by his firm's top client? How can a down-at-heel magician in Devon explain the vast fortune that has mysteriously appeared in his daughter's trust fund? With customs officer Nat Brock on the trail, the answers point to the House of Single - once a respectable finance company, now entangled with a Russian crime syndicate. West is pitted against East, and the British establishment against a labyrinthine criminal superpower, in le Carré's searing novel of lives built upon lies. 'An adventure that takes us to the ends of the earth via the rich but often barren landscape of the human heart' The Times 'A masterly work, faultless fiction of the highest order' Glasgow Herald © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), Tim McInnerny (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Tailor of Panama

"Brought to you by Penguin. Charmer, fabulist and tailor to Panama's rich and powerful, Harry Pendel loves to tell stories. But when the British spy Andrew Osnard - a man of large appetites, for women, information and above all money - walks into his shop, Harry's fantastical inventions take on a life of their own. Soon he finds himself out of his depth in an international game he can never hope to win. Le Carré's savage satire on the espionage trade is set in a corrupt universe without heroes or honour, where the innocent are collateral damage and treachery plays out as tragic farce. 'A work of rare brilliance' The Times 'A tour de force in which almost every convention of the classic spy novel is violated' The New York Times Book Review © John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), David Rintoul (Narrator)

Audiobook

Absolute Friends

"Brought to you by Penguin. Broke and working as a tour guide in Germany, rootless Englishman Ted Mundy catches a glimpse of an old friend hiding in the shadows. A friend he thought was lost to him. A friend who took him from radical 1960s Berlin to life as a double agent. Now, decades later, the Cold War is over and the war on terror has begun. Sasha has another mission for them both, but this time it is impossible to tell the difference between allies - and enemies. Set in a world of lies and shifting allegiances, Absolute Friends is a savage fable of our times. 'One of his most enthralling creations' Daily Telegraph 'Thoroughly gripping' Sunday Times 'This is le Carré with a twist, the Old Master developing new techniques for a new age' The Times © John le Carré 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Le Carré (Author), Simon Paisley Day (Narrator)

Audiobook