Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carre
Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carre
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Our Kind of Traitor

Author: John le Carré

Narrator: Robin Sachs

Unabridged: 11 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 10/12/2010

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies. 

In this exquisitely told novel, John le Carré shows us once again his acute understanding of the world we live in and where power really lies.
 
In the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and with Britain on the brink of economic ruin, a young English couple takes a vacation in Antigua. There they meet Dima, a Russian who styles himself the world’s Number One money-launderer and who wants, among other things, a game of tennis. Back in London, the couple is subjected to an interrogation by the British Secret service who also need their help. Their acquiescence will lead them on a precarious journey through Paris to a safe house in Switzerland, helpless pawns in a game of nations that reveals the unholy alliances between the Russian mafia, the City of London, the government and the competing factions of the British Secret Service.

About John le Carre

Fiction imitating real life seems to be an apt mantra for British born author, David John Moore Cornwell, or his pen name, John le Carre'. He had a very "un-normal" childhood, having been abandoned by his mother when he was five years old, and his father made and lost fortunes several times by using tricks and schemes, and even landed in jail for insurance fraud. le Carre' was reunited with the mother he never knew when he was 21. Unbeknownst to him, he developed his fascination with secret lives from his observation of his father's unsavory lifestyle.

le Carre' studied and received a degree in modern languages after a few "bumps in the road" along the way. He joined the Intelligence Corps of the British Army stationed in Allied-occupied Austria, serving as a German language interrogator, then worked covertly for the British Secret Service, M-15 as a spy to detect Soviet agents. He taught at Eton College while he was an M-15 officer. He ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephones, and supervised break-ins. He was encouraged to write by other authors, writing his first novel, Call for the Dead in 1961. In 1960, he had transferred to M-16, the foreign intelligence service. His cover for that position was Secretary of the British Embassy at Bonn, and later Hamburg. It was at that time that he wrote, A Murder of Quality, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He assumed his pen name when he wrote, since officers were forbidden to publish in their own names.

le Carre's novels include: The Looking Glass, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Smiley's People, The Little Drummer Girl, The Night Manager, The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardner, A Most Wanted Man, and Our Kind of Traitor. All of the John le Carre' novels were adapted for film or television.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Dutch on 2012-10-01 12:11:03

This novel probably deserves more than 3 stars and Robin Sachs does a pitch perfect job of reading, with each character possessing a distinctive voice that reflects their personality to a T. But I am just so tired of LeCarres sad depressing endings where everyone you are rooting for loses and where several major story lines are left totally unresolved. I know, life is unresolved, but so what? This is a story, it has a plot, it introduces complex characters who all rush towards a tense climax, but then... nothing. Id be happy to send Mr. LeCarre some Prozac if he would just write a story where most of the good guys come out ahead and all the main story lines are resolved at least regarding the plots climax.

Goodreads review by Jade on May 08, 2022

In Our kind of Traitor we meet two Perry and Gayle, who take off a vacation on a Caribbean island where they bump into Dima a Russian money launder for the Russian mafia who wants asylum for him and his family in return he will hand over evidence incriminating his co-conspirators in the black operat......more

Goodreads review by F.R. on July 24, 2011

Well this doesn’t just seem to be ‘The Worst Novel Le Carré Has Ever Written’, it actually jumps up and down and demands the title. It’s odd that an author who has spent half a century writing suspenseful and intelligent thrillers, should now produce one so lacking in suspense or interest. Certainly......more

Goodreads review by Julian on December 06, 2020

Another wonderful book by John Le Carre. Easy to read and somehow you become invested in all the characters. Throughout I was wondering who the traitor was going to be on the British side amongst the characters I was introduced to. The only part I didn't like was the ending - it's been done before I......more

Goodreads review by Helen on December 23, 2010

Not at the level of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold or the Smiley series, but still, very very good, and better than most of the stuff that le Carre has written since the end of the cold war. What's great about it? His effortless plotting and his thorough knowledge of the amorality of the world's......more

Quotes

“One of our great writers of moral ambiguity, a tireless explorer of that darkly contradictory no-man’s land…Our Kind of Traitor brims with deftly drawn characters navigating a treacherously uncertain landscape that seems ripped from yesterday’s papers and re-created with an absolutely certain hand.”—Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

“Part vintage John le Carré and part Alfred Hitchcock…the suspense in Our Kind of Traitor is genuine and nerve-racking.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“I would suggest immortality for John le Carré, who I believe one of the most intelligent and entertaining writers working today.”—The Chicago Tribune.

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