Description
'With A Delicate Truth, le Carre has in a sense come home. And it's a splendid homecoming . . . the novel is the most satisfying, subtle and compelling of his recent oeuvre' The Times
A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain's most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister's Private Secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it.
Suspecting a disastrous conspiracy, Toby attempts to forestall it, but is promptly posted overseas. Three years on, summoned by Sir Christopher Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, and closely watched by Probyn's daughter Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and his duty to the Service.
If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?
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'No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times, from the Second World War to the 'War on Terror'' Guardian
'The master of the modern spy novel returns . . . John le Carre was never a spy-turned-writer, he was a writer who found his canvas in espionage' Daily Mail
'A brilliant climax, with sinister deaths, casual torture, wrecked lives and shameful compromises' Observer
A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain's most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose- to capture a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. Its authors- an ambitious Foreign Office Minister, and a private defence contractor who is also his close friend.
About the Author
John le Carre was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a confidence trickster, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. At sixteen he found refuge at the University of Bern, then later at Oxford. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5 & 6). He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. At the end of the Cold War, le Carre widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017. He died on 12 December 2020. His posthumous novel, Silverview, was published in 2021.
Reviews
Perhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain . . . He should have won the Booker Prize a long time ago. It's time he won it and it's time he accepted it. He's in the first rank. -- Ian McEwan * Telegraph *
No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times, from the Second World War to the "War on Terror" * Guardian *
One of those writers who will be read a century from now -- Robert Harris
With A Delicate Truth, le Carre has in a sense come home. And it's a splendid homecoming . . . Satisfying, subtle and compelling * The Times *
The perfectly paced, exquisitely cynical style that is le Carre's hallmark * Sunday Times *
The master of the modern spy novel returns . . . this is writing of such quality that - as Robert Harris put it - it will be read in one hundred years * Daily Mail *
A brilliant climax, with sinister deaths, casual torture, wrecked lives and shameful compromises * Observer *
A writer of towering gifts . . . le Carre is one of the great analysts of the contemporary scene, who has a talent to provoke as well as unsettle * Independent *
John le Carre takes us back to his favourite scenarios: Whitehall, the secret services, the gentleman's clubs, dodgy bankers, corrupt public schoolboys and gruesome American neo-cons . . . revelling once more in that imaginary world of secrets and lies that is le Carre's gift to us * Evening Standard *
Thrilling, suspenseful . . . Fans will not be disappointed * Sunday Express *
Utterly convincing characters, a tight plot . . . Wonderful * Sunday Mirror *
Thrilling * Express *
Choreographed with unsettling precision * Metro *
When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carre ... they were a journey into the wider world ... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind -- Aung San Suu Kyi
Plunges the reader into a modern-day thriller...Dad won't be able to put it down * Metro *
[It] has all the essential ingredients of his masterpieces: the dilemmas of duty, patriotism and decency -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Metro 'Books of the Year' *
John Le Carre at his masterful best . . . nobody does it better -- Ben Macintyre * The Times 'Books of the Year' *
Widely hailed as a return to the good old Smiley days . . . le Carre writes with laconic elegance -- Kate Saunders * The Times 'Books of the Year' *
Book Information
ISBN 9780241965184
Author John le Carre
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 303g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 25mm
