Synopses & Reviews
From
SingleandSingle's "tour de force opening"
(Kirkus Reviews), le Carré masterfully establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. He fashions a story of corrupt liaisons between criminal syndicates in the new Russian states and the legitimate world of Western finance. He also intimately portrays two families: one Russian, the other English; one trading illicit goods, the other laundering the profits; one betrayed by a son-in-law, the other betrayed-and redeemed-by a son. An enthralling, multilayered tale by an author at the height of his creative powers,
SingleandSingle is le Carré's finest novel in years.
Review
"Deprived of the great subject of Cold War espionage he handled better than any other novelist, le Carré now argues that individual greed, not ideology, is the villain to watch out for, and individual enterprise the only possible hope." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Single & Single provides a fascinating journey through the new landscape of corruption....The power of Single & Single stems from the author's portrait of a world in which individuals are no match for the organized mania of greed." Paul Gray, Time Magazine
Review
"...le Carre reveals a world at once deeply disquieting and oddly reassuring..." Kyle Smith, People Magazine
Review
"Swell writing." Newsweek
Review
"...[A] decidedly unusual, satisfying book: literary novel and thriller combined..." Anthony Lejeune, The National Review
Review
"...[H]e continues to write convincing and inventive [books]....his prose...is leaner, faster." Tom De Haven, Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Today [le Carre] faces the same problem as his spies: he has to find something else to do....The moral center of the story is a young man who betrays his father in order to save him. In le Carre's hands betrayal becomes a form of loyalty. It is a rich idea....But try getting it across in a real bank!" Michael Lewis, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Le Carre is more than just a great storyteller. In Single and Single, he captures the Zeitgeist itself, in this case the very funk of post-Soviet Euro-fear." Tom Wolfe
Review
"Le Carr's new novel...has moved on from spying to international crime, the domestic menace replacing the collapsed Soviet military and ideological menace. Money laundering and drug smuggling define today's world, and are not without their Russians, to be sure..." Diane Johnson, The New York Review of Books
About the Author
John le Carré was born in England in 1931. After attending the universities of Berne and Oxford, he spent five years in the British Foreign Service. The author of seventeen novels, including
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; A Perfect Spy; The Russia House; and
The Tailor of Panama, his books have been translated into 25 languages. He lives in England.