Today we are publishing a novel written by a bright young thing and everyone here at Penguin is very excited. You see, every now and then in this publishing racket you get hold of a novel that really shakes you to your very core. It’s a rare, exhilarating experience, and one made all the more startling when you realise the author was barely older than you are when he wrote it and apparently wrote the thing in only five weeks.
The author in question? A publisher’s dream. Under thirty-five, incredibly talented, handsome and charismatic and with what some like to call a very promotable personal story. So who the hell am I talking about, I hear you type? Well, the author is a man called John le Carré and the novel ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ was published in 1963 when he was only thirty two.
Now, I’m not too proud to admit that until recently a “le Carré” was something I’d watch, not something I’d read. As regulars to these missives on here will have probably realised, I’m quite picky about what makes it on to my to-read pile and I have to say that I could count the number of crime/thrillers/espionage books I’ve read on one hand. But I was wrong, and thankfully the prize for my ignorance is being able to discover and read for the first time one of the most thrilling and engaging writers working today.
First published 47 years ago, and being reissued today in Penguin Modern Classics, le Carré’s ‘Spy’ still has the power to make you uncomfortably aware of the mechanics operating in the pit of your stomach. His relentless, unflinching and unforgiving vision of the world reminded me of the moral wasteland that permeates McCarthy’s scalpathon ‘Blood Meridian’ and leaves you with an overwhelming sense that no matter how good the good guys are; the bad guys will always win.
Fast forward 47 years and 19 novels later, and le Carré set to publish his new novel, ‘Our Kind of Traitor’, in September. While ‘Spy’ was absolutely of its time, painfully relevant to the Cold War world it so expertly describes, ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ is a novel for now, for today and le Carré tackles the City of London’s unholy alliance with Britain’s Intelligence Establishment with aplomb. This was the first le Carré I read, and I loved it. As he leads you down the rabbit hole of intrigue and espionage, seamlessly gliding through the heads of his characters, offering a hint of information here, a glimmer of understanding there, you cannot help but feel under the control of a complete master.
So, if you are life long fan, like an awful lot of people are, then you are in for a real treat. If you are a novice, an ignoramus, like me, then what are you waiting for? You have 21 novels to catch up with before the launch of ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ on September 16th.
Matt Clacher
Marketing Executive
@mattclaher
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