From Powells.com
Readers had reason to fear the end of the Cold War. For many years, they were
able to anticipate the next venture into the cold, calculating arena of international
espionage from the undisputed master of the spy novel, John
le Carré. And yet, their fears proved groundless, for, as le Carré
is well aware, the world continues to turn, and there will always be criminals
and international intrigue. Single & Single has a cast of shifty characters,
from the virtually Sophoclean father-and-son duo of Tiger and Oliver Single, whose
London banking (or something a little more dodgy) firm lends the book its title,
to the vicious Russian brothers Yevgeny and Mikhail Ivanovich, who are hot on
the Singles' tail to retrieve five million pounds sterling. Cat and mouse machinations
propel the plot across Europe with dirty money inspiring even dirtier actions.
What separates le Carré from other popular thriller writers is his grace.
He paces his stories of murder, bribery, corruption, betrayal, and the rest, with
moments of introspection, disquiet, and dark mood. His are truly literary thrillers,
and Single & Single is no deviation from his elegant and sophisticated
style, Cold War or no Cold War. Georgie, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A lawyer from the London finance house of "Single & Single" is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician in the English countryside is asked by his bank to explain the unsolicited arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust. A freighter bound for Liverpool is boarded by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea. The celebrated London merchant venturer "Tiger" Single disappears into thin air.
In "Single & Single" the writer who both epitomizes and transcends the novel of espionage opens with a haunting set piece, then establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. This is a story of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. Le Carre's finest novel in years, it is also an intimate portrait of 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.
This is territory le Carre knows better than anyone. Masterful and prescient, he is writing at the height of his creative powers, and Oliver Single, the central protagonist, is one of his most fascinating characters.
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
"Swell writing." Newsweek
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
"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
"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
"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
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
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
The bestselling author of "A Perfect Spy" epitomizes and transcends the spy novel genre to present a story of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in Europe.
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.