The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

John le Carré

Feb 2011 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Alec Leamas is tired. It's the 1960s, he's been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at last - but only after one final assignment.

He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, Leamas's mission may prove to be the worst thing he could ever have done.

In le Carré's breakthrough work of 1963, the spy story is reborn as a gritty and terrible tale of men who are caught up in politics beyond their imagining.

With a new introduction by William Boyd and an afterword by Le Carré himself.

Ratings and reviews

Not into reading at momen tand needto reado more than that to knowweatherit's mysort of book I like true stories Martina Cole and sylvan day books

I'm quite picky when it comes to books, I usually read biographies because it's easier to get a good idea of the background. I bought this at random to take on holiday as I'd seen another Le Carré novel on offer in Heathrow and liked the cover art; what a decision that turned out to be. I couldn't stop reading it, sneaking in a chapter or two while my girlfriend got ready and such. The plot thickens beautifully in front of your eyes without ever giving you too much.

Look beyond the hype: there are novels with far better plots than this one, stuffed as it is with a lot of political philosophy.

About the author

John le Carré (Author)
John le Carré 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 Carré 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.


William Boyd (Introducer)
William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of sixteen highly acclaimed, bestselling novels and five collections of stories. Any Human Heart was longlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into a TV series with Channel 4. In 2005, Boyd was awarded the CBE. He is married and divides his time between London and south-west France.