A Perfect Spy
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: bomc
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
In the shadowy world where loyalty is a liability and identity a carefully constructed lie, A Perfect Spy stands as John le Carré's most searingly autobiographical work — a masterful portrait of Magnus Pym, a senior British intelligence officer who vanishes without warning, sending shockwaves through both MI6 and the CIA. As his handlers and his wife race to locate him, the novel unfolds in a series of confessional letters Pym writes to his son, chronicling a life built on deception — from his charismatic, con-man father Rick, whose Dickensian scheming shaped Magnus's genius for duplicity, to the Czech intelligence officer who became his closest friend and most dangerous handler. The narrative weaves between past and present with surgical precision, illustrating how a man can be everything to everyone and, ultimately, nothing to himself. Le Carré argues, with quiet devastating force, that the perfect spy is not forged in tradecraft academies but in childhood — in the art of becoming whoever a manipulative parent needs you to be. A Perfect Spy transcends the genre thriller to arrive at something far more unsettling: a psychological excavation of self, loyalty, and the cost of a life lived in perpetual performance. Widely regarded as le Carré's finest achievement, it draws on the author's own troubled relationship with his father Ronnie Cornwell — a fraudster of legendary charm — lending the novel an emotional authenticity that no amount of invention alone could manufacture. For those who believe they know the spy novel, this is the book that will make them reconsider everything.
Author: John Le Carré
Format: Hardback
Genre: Cold war & espionage
Edition: bomc
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
In the shadowy world where loyalty is a liability and identity a carefully constructed lie, A Perfect Spy stands as John le Carré's most searingly autobiographical work — a masterful portrait of Magnus Pym, a senior British intelligence officer who vanishes without warning, sending shockwaves through both MI6 and the CIA. As his handlers and his wife race to locate him, the novel unfolds in a series of confessional letters Pym writes to his son, chronicling a life built on deception — from his charismatic, con-man father Rick, whose Dickensian scheming shaped Magnus's genius for duplicity, to the Czech intelligence officer who became his closest friend and most dangerous handler. The narrative weaves between past and present with surgical precision, illustrating how a man can be everything to everyone and, ultimately, nothing to himself. Le Carré argues, with quiet devastating force, that the perfect spy is not forged in tradecraft academies but in childhood — in the art of becoming whoever a manipulative parent needs you to be. A Perfect Spy transcends the genre thriller to arrive at something far more unsettling: a psychological excavation of self, loyalty, and the cost of a life lived in perpetual performance. Widely regarded as le Carré's finest achievement, it draws on the author's own troubled relationship with his father Ronnie Cornwell — a fraudster of legendary charm — lending the novel an emotional authenticity that no amount of invention alone could manufacture. For those who believe they know the spy novel, this is the book that will make them reconsider everything.