John le Carré is a giant of 20th-century fiction. This British author was born on 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England. Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality, le Carré's first two novels, are mystery fiction. Le Carre had walked away from a career in British intelligence and set about writing one of the most respected and cynical series of novels about intelligence and espionage in history. The common threads that run throughout these novels are deceit and betrayal, and le Carre came to his perspective and thematic portrayals through personal experience. A Perfect Spy is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a high-level secret agent. Magnus Pym, under the name of Mr Canterbury, has retreated to a rooming house on the English coast in order to write, though one does not know until the novel’s end how desperate a retreat this is. For years, Magnus has been wanting to retire from his work in British espionage and the diplomatic post that is his cover, and write a novel. His father’s death gives him an unexpected leave of absence and also the impetus to write not the novel but a memoir for his son, Tom, though he occasionally addresses his wife, Mary, and his controller, Jack Brotherhood, as well. In explaining his own life to Tom, Magnus hopes to free, if not himself, then at least Tom, from the haunting and dominating presence of Magnus’ own father, and presumably to free Tom from his, Magnus’, own shadow as well… Enjoy free online English audiobook “A Perfect Spy”, a novel by John le Carré.
