Single & Single
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 61 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
“Any reader who feared that the end of the Cold War would deprive Mr. le Carré of his subject can now feel a measure of relief. If anything, his subject of East-West misunderstanding has grown richer, and he now possesses vast new territories to mine" (The New York Times).
New York Times bestselling author John le Carré's novels deftly navigate us through the intricate shadow worlds of international intrigue with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim.
A lawyer from a London finance house 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 to explain the arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust.
In Single & Single, le Carré masterfully establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. He tells of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. He also paints 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The unusual title of le Carre's latest book is the name of a London family firm whose members seem to be investment bankers, but of a very peculiar and contemporary sort. In fact, they work with the kind of people--Russian gangsters, Swiss lawyers, creators of dummy corporations around the world--that specialize in making big money out of drugs and arms, and laundering the proceeds. The firm is run by Tiger Single, a modern buccaneer who wants his son, Oliver, to move up in the business. But in a repeat of the kind of father-son conflict in The Honorable Schoolboy, Oliver is turning against everything his father stands for, and has begun to talk to H.M. Customs about the firm's activities. Eventually, as the Russians and their henchmen turn nasty and try to take over Single's empire, Oliver must decide where his loyalties really lie. The tale is energized by le Carre's breathtaking versatility with settings and voices, and his authoritative portrayal of the way things are done in the shifty world succeeding his former Cold War preoccupations. The problem is that, despite a gripping start and many incidental pleasures along the way, neither Oliver nor his father quite come into focus the way so many of the characters did in le Carre's last, The Tailor of Panama. There is something a little forced about Oliver, his adored baby daughter, his budding affection for agent Aggie; even Brock, the determined Customs agent forever on Tiger's trail, seems shadowy, and the denouement is unusually perfunctory for a le Carre novel. Not by any means his best effort--but even at less than full stretch, le Carre is never less than a riveting writer. BOMC main selection.
Customer Reviews
Single & Single renewed
It's been nearly 20 years --at least 15 anyway -- since I first read this volume by LeCarré. The first time around I wasn't impressed, still in my post-Smiley hangover phase.
But now I realize its brilliance and raise it into my top 5.