{"product_id":"2026200013754-secondhand-the-spy","title":"The Spy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the shadowy underworld of Tsarist Russia, a young man named Yevsey Klimkov is recruited into the secret police, drawn into a web of surveillance, betrayal, and moral corruption that slowly consumes his soul. The Spy, written by one of Russia's most celebrated literary giants, chronicles the harrowing psychological journey of a timid, impressionable youth who becomes an instrument of state oppression — spying on revolutionaries and ordinary citizens alike — while wrestling with the crushing weight of his own complicity and cowardice. Gorky's narrative is unflinching in its portrayal of a society rotting from within, where paranoia is currency and loyalty is a trap, rendering this a deeply suspenseful and morally urgent work.\n\nPublished originally in 1908, The Spy stands as one of Gorky's most psychologically penetrating novels, illustrating the brutalising machinery of autocratic power through the eyes of its most pitiful servant. Gorky's prose — at once stark and richly atmospheric — draws on his own intimate knowledge of poverty and political repression, lending the novel an authenticity that reverberates long after the final page. This Heron Books edition, complete with an introduction by R.D.B. Thomson and original illustrations by Anthony Cohen, presents a beautifully appointed rendition of a work that remains as searching and unsettling as ever — a portrait of a man who loses himself entirely in service to a system that never once valued him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49160898937051,"sku":"2026200013754-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/31a49cfe-b8bd-4737-8f68-e588bb4d738f.png?v=1787188291","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200013754-secondhand-the-spy","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}