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Silverview by John le Carré

Thriller

Silverview

by John le Carré

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Quick take

The final twisty tale from the modern spymaster John le Carré.

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    Famous author

  • Illustrated icon, International

    International

  • Illustrated icon, Movieish

    Movieish

  • Illustrated icon, Whodunit

    Whodunit

Synopsis

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian's evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish emigre living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian's family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .

Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice, John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.

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Get an early look from the first pages of Silverview.

Silverview

I

At ten o’clock of a rainswept morning in London’s West End, a young woman in a baggy anorak, a woollen scarf pulled up around her head, strode resolutely into the storm that was roaring down South Audley Street. Her name was Lily and she was in a state of emotional anxiety which at moments turned to outrage. With one mittened hand she shielded her eyes from the rain while she glowered at door numbers, and with the other steered a plastic- covered push-chair that contained Sam, her two- year- old son. Some houses were so grand they had no numbers at all. Others had numbers but belonged to the wrong street.

Arriving at a pretentious doorway with its number painted with unusual clarity on one pillar, she climbed the steps backwards, hauling the pushchair after her, scowled at a list of names beside the owners’ bell buttons, and jabbed the lowest.

‘Just give the door a push, dear,’ a kindly woman’s voice advised her over the speaker.

‘I need Proctor. She said Proctor or no one,’ Lily said, straight back.

‘Stewart’s on his way now, dear,’ the same soothing voice announced, and seconds later the front door opened to reveal a stalky, bespectacled man in his mid-fifties, with a leftward lean to his body, and a long beakish head tilted in semi-humorous enquiry. A matronly woman with white hair and a cardigan stood at his shoulder.

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Why I love it

A former MI5 intelligence officer, John le Carré captured the imagination of millions of readers around the world with his twisty, authentic espionage novels, penning over two dozen books over the course of his illustrious second career. And with this, his final posthumously published novel, readers are given one final journey into the mind of the spy thriller master.

In Silverview we are introduced to Julian Lawndsley, a man whose quiet life running a small-town bookshop is turned upside down when a mysterious visitor comes knocking with far too many questions. Soon word of an intelligence leak brings a spy to Lawndsley’s seaside town. What follows is a thoughtful and complex story of secrets and betrayals.

Whether you are a longtime fan of le Carré’s work or dipping into his world of espionage for the very first time, I think you’ll find Silverview to be a thought-provoking narrative from a writer in a league of his own.

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View all
The Boyfriend
The Last One at the Wedding
Sleep Tight
First Lie Wins
House of Glass
Middle of the Night
Listen for the Lie
A Talent for Murder
Beautiful Ugly
Someone in the Attic
One Perfect Couple
Like Mother, Like Daughter
Kill for Me, Kill for You
Bad Tourists
Murder Road
Daughter of Mine
The Fury
The Other Mothers
When I’m Dead
The Soulmate
What Lies in the Woods
She Started It
The Only One Left
Dark Corners
Blacktop Wasteland
All the Dangerous Things
The Only Survivors
The Broken Girls
The Family Game
The Push
We Were Never Here
Things We Do in the Dark
The Golden Couple
The Stranger Upstairs
Gone Tonight
Too Good to Be True
The Last Word
You Are Not Alone
Rock Paper Scissors
Not a Happy Family
A Flicker in the Dark
Reckless Girls
The House Across the Lake
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Maidens
Everything We Didn't Say
The Paris Apartment
You're Invited
The Last Party
Dark Places
Pieces of Her
The Wife Between Us
Sharp Objects
None of This Is True
The Silent Patient
The Other Woman
Necessary People
The Family Upstairs
The Night Swim
Girl A
The Hunting Wives
Just Another Missing Person
First Born
The Lies I Tell
Breathless