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Absolute Friends
- Narrated by: John le Carré
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
Today, Mundy is a down-at-heel tour guide in southern Germany, dodging creditors, supporting a new family, and keeping an eye out for trouble while in spare moments vigorously questioning the actions of the country he once bravely served.
And trouble finds him, as it has before, in the shape of his old German student friend, radical, and one-time fellow spy, the crippled Sasha, seeker after absolutes, dreamer, and chaos addict.
After years of trawling the Middle East and Asia as an itinerant university lecturer, Sasha has yet again discovered the true, the only, answer to life, this time in the form of a mysterious billionaire philanthropist named Dimitri. Thanks to Dimitri, both Mundy and Sasha will find a path out of poverty, and with it their chance to change a world that both believe is going to the devil. Or will they?
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"Seamless abridgement. No one reads le Carre better than le Carre. His nuances, accents, and inflections are as brilliantly precise as his prose." (Publishers Weekly)
"Le Carre brings his superb reading talents - sonorous, cultured voice; gift for accents; deft expressiveness - to the story of Ted Mundy, a fumbling, well-meaning Brit.... He is simply one of the best author readers there is." (AudioFile)
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Well Written & Funny but Lacking
- By Michael on 07-19-15
By: Evelyn Waugh
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The Darling
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Mary Beth Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Darling is Hannah Musgrave's story, told emotionally and convincingly years later by Hannah herself. A political radical and member of the Weather Underground, Hannah has fled America to West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends and colleagues of Charles Taylor, the notorious warlord and now ex-president of Liberia. When Taylor leaves for the United States in an effort to escape embezzlement charges, he's immediately placed in prison.
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Complex and compelling
- By Ellen H. Anderson on 02-05-05
By: Russell Banks
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The Bone Clocks
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: Jessica Ball, Leon Williams, Colin Mace, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
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Not Short Listed, This Time
- By Mel on 09-23-14
By: David Mitchell
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Welcome to the Monkey House
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: David Strathairn, Maria Tucci, Bill Irwin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
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Classic Vonnegut
- By Michael Carrato on 08-17-06
By: Kurt Vonnegut
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Dreamers of the Day
- A Novel
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as an historic Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions - and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie - enters into the company of the historic luminaries.
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Little Big Woman
- By W.Denis on 10-02-08
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The Unlikely Spy
- By: Daniel Silva
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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“In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable - a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent.
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The Unlikely Spy
- By Margaret on 12-14-09
By: Daniel Silva
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The Quiet American
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Joseph Porter
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy amidst the intrigue and violence of the French war with the Vietminh, while his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on.
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Terrible narrator nearly derails Greene novel.
- By Richard on 07-12-12
By: Graham Greene
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Sign of the Cross: A Collins-Burke Mystery, Book 1
- By: Anne Emery
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Monty Collins is a sharp-tongued public defender who just wants to represent an upstanding character for a change. A priest with something to hide isn't quite what he had hoped for, but when the literate, arrogant, and tight-lipped Father Brennan Burke is implicated in the strange murder of a young woman, Monty doesn't just take the case - the case takes him. When Burke won't come clean, Monty is forced to play private detective, traveling into his client's past. Things look good for the case until another body is found....
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Hybrid Mystery
- By connie on 07-31-12
By: Anne Emery
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The Ghost Writer
- A Novel
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Roger Rees
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Lang has been Britain’s longest serving—and most controversial—prime minister of the last half century. As pressure mounts for Lang to complete this memoirs, he hires a professional ghostwriter to finish the book. As he sets to work, the ghostwriter discovers many more secrets than Lang intends to reveal, secrets with the power to alter world politics - secrets with the power to kill.
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Too close to the truth?
- By carl801 on 11-24-07
By: Robert Harris
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Put Out More Flags
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life - his sister, his mother, and his mistress. When Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and sets forth to enjoy his finest hour - as a war hero. Basil's instincts for self-preservation come to the fore as he insinuates himself into the Ministry of Information and a little-known section of Military Security.
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Wickedly Funny
- By Chelz on 07-25-19
By: Evelyn Waugh
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Triple
- A Novel
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: Raza Jaffrey
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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As Egypt comes closer and closer to developing a nuclear bomb, the Mossad’s number one Israeli agent is given an impossible mission: to beat the Arabs in the nuclear arms race by finding and stealing two hundred tons of uranium. The world’s balance of power will shift. And the Mossad, the KGB, the Egyptians, and Fedayeen terrorists will play out the final, violent moves in this devastating game where the price of failure is a nuclear holocaust....
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Triple poorly performed
- By Jpop on 03-13-21
By: Ken Follett
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Mrs Queen Takes the Train
- By: William Kuhn
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.
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Can't believe how much I loved this story
- By analyzethis on 03-10-13
By: William Kuhn
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I haven't enjoyed a tale this much in many listens
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Only a tease, a taunt of le Carré's brilliance
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Not one of Le Carré's best
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In the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and with Britain on the brink of economic ruin, a young English couple takes a vacation in Antigua. There they meet Dima, a Russian who styles himself the world’s number one money launderer and who wants, among other things, a game of tennis. Back in London, the couple is subjected to an interrogation by the British Secret Service, who also need their help. Their acquiescence will lead them on a precarious journey through Paris to a safe house in Switzerland, helpless pawns in a game of nations.
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Be Prepared - Read at your own risk
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The spy who came back to the bank
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I haven't enjoyed a tale this much in many listens
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Only a tease, a taunt of le Carré's brilliance
- By Darwin8u on 03-24-15
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Le Carre's Panama is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. It is also the country which on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal.
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Not one of Le Carré's best
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Be Prepared - Read at your own risk
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Greatest love story of the last fifty years
- By Darwin8u on 06-30-13
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A Private Spy
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The never-before-seen correspondence of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, is collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humor, generosity, and wit—a side of him many listeners have not previously seen.
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Truly engrossing from start to finish
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John le Carré Value Collection
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Night Manager: Enter the new world of post-Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. Our Game: With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma.... Tailor of Panama: Le Carre's Panama is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. It is also the country which on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal.
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you want to know what I think?
- By Anniebligh on 11-24-14
By: John le Carré
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Our Game & Absolute Friends (Abridged)
- By: John le Carré
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- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma. But when both Emma and Cranmer's star double agent and lifelong rival, Larry Pettifer, disappears, Cranmer is suddenly on the run, searching for his brilliant protégé, desperately eluding his former colleagues, in a frantic journey across Europe and into the lawless, battered landscapes of Moscow and Southern Russia, to save whatever of his life he has left.
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Engaging but often hard to follow
- By m. bryant on 01-21-23
By: John le Carré
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A Perfect Spy
- By: John Le Carré
- Narrated by: Shaun Evans
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The most autobiographical of John le Carré’s works, A Perfect Spy follows two narratives: the manhunt for the double agent Magnus Pym, and the makings of the man in question—told in his own words.
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Wonderful narration
- By Clare Barnett on 08-17-24
By: John Le Carré
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The Night Manager
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John le Carré, the legendary author of sophisticated spy thrillers, is at the top of his game in this classic novel of a world in chaos. With the Cold War over, a new era of espionage has begun. In the power vacuum left by the Soviet Union, arms dealers and drug smugglers have risen to immense influence and wealth. The sinister master of them all is Richard Onslow Roper, the charming, ruthless Englishman whose operation seems untouchable.
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Good book. Get the Michael Jayston version instead
- By David Schafer on 07-28-16
By: John le Carré
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Agent Running in the Field
- A Novel
- By: John le Carré
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- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
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Who writes “unlistenable etc. “
- By Thomas on 11-02-19
By: John le Carré
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The Pigeon Tunnel
- Stories from My Life
- By: John le Carré
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels.
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A Global Literary Treasure
- By Darwin8u on 09-16-16
By: John le Carré
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The Naïve and Sentimental Lover
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Aldo Cassidy is the naive and sentimental lover. A successful, judicious man, he is wrenched away from the ordered certainties of his life by a sudden encounter with Shamus, a wild, beguiling artist and Helen, his alluring and dazzling wife.
By: John Le Carré
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The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas
- BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: full cast, Simon Russell Beale
- Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins
- Original Recording
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The complete collection of acclaimed BBC Radio dramas based on John le Carré's best-selling novels, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. With a star cast including Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Brian Cox, Ian MacDiarmid, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan, these enthralling dramatisations perfectly capture the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, thrilling spy novels.
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good reading but can't navigate
- By RB Vancouver on 01-07-17
By: John le Carré
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A Small Town in Germany
- By: John Le Carré
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the late 1960s, in the town of Bonn, capital of West Germany, a British Embassy officer by the name of Leo Harting goes missing—and forty-three confidential-or-higher files with him. Dispatched from the British Foreign Office to investigate, Alan Turner arrives in Bonn to find riots, protests, and a tenuous balance of power. As if there isn’t enough pressure, the embassy’s head of Chancery, Rawley Bradfield, makes it clear he has no intentions of making Turner’s investigation an easy one.
By: John Le Carré
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The Russia House
- By: John Le Carré
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In the era of perestroika and glasnost in the USSR, a manuscript is meant to be delivered to one Bartholomew Barley Blair, a British publisher known for his eccentricity. The manuscript, penned by Russian scientist Yakov Savelyev, contains critical information detailing the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities and the state of their missile program. Except—it doesn't reach Barley. Instead, after exchanging hands several times, it ends up in the hands of the British Secret Intelligence Service, and they're quite interested in why Barley was the intended recipient of such a document.
By: John Le Carré
What listeners say about Absolute Friends
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Roger
- 04-14-07
Classical Le Carre
This book is read by the author who not only displays is understanding of the book, but handles the different voices perfectly. He is nothing like other spy thriller writers; he's much, much better. Also recommend his newest book Mission Song
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Overall
- Ann
- 02-03-04
Le Carre has a point of view
I suppose John Le Carre could write a bad book. I just never have read one. He also is a superior reader and/or actor.
What seems to be different about "Absolute Friends" is that instead of world- weary agents with murky allegiances more contingent on place of birth and chance, this book, in the end, has a passionate point of view. One that many fans of Le Carre may disagree with. Well, I can personally read about spies without becoming one. Highly recommended.
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24 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 05-04-04
Le Carre in Top Form
This writer never disappoints me. His emphasis on character development and innovative, well-researched plots pays dividends for the reader. This novel covers a period in the lives of its protagonists from the 60's right up to today (and I mean right now).
The main character is a particularly poignant example of the offspring of declining British Empire. Le Carre maintained my interest with vivid portraits of British and German counterculture youth of the 60's. And, as always, he demonstrates the ultimate cynicism and folly of the practitioners of the spy games of the Twentieth Century.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- John
- 02-14-04
The Master is Back
I have never enjoyed an audio book more! This is a magnificent and timely tale reminiscent of A Small Town in Germany or Le Carre's other earlier works. It is deeply rooted in the cold war, yet quite contemporary, bridging the gap from the Berlin Wall to the current conflict in Baghdad.
The abridged version no doubt comes at the cost of some of the protagonist's more introspective self-examination, though the characters remain complex, human and compelling. And what a treat to have the author narrating. His reading adds a great deal to the authenticity and enjoyment of the novel.
Despite passages such as:
"The easiest and cheapest trick for any leader is to take his country to war on false pretenses," spoken by the book?s hero Mundy, Le Carre is quite even handed in his disdain for the entire cast of global players.
As with so many of Le Carre's imperfect characters, our "perfect friends" follow their highest ideals into the self serving world of political intrigue and the seedy realities of global greed. For those readers who shallowly declare that the book is an indictment on the West, listen more closely. It is an indictment on the human condition which repeatedly demonstrates its inability to translate our shared ideals into a political system that reflects those ideals.
All in all, an absolute little truffle of a spy book as engaging and satisfying as one could hope for from the greatest writer of the genre.
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17 people found this helpful
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Performance
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- Glenn
- 01-10-15
Ending was the best
I was a bit confused by the characters and their loyalties throughout the story but at the end you I warned about the media who often gets it wrong.
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Performance
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- FrannyG
- 02-08-24
My Least Favorite LeCarre
This book was fairly sad and depressing but it was a great performance by the author.
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Overall
- Tim
- 03-25-04
The Spy Who Came In (as if by Graham Green)
All of Lecarre is good, some excellent. This one is superb. This novel of the aging of friendship would stand on its own, even without the espionage and the politics. With them, it is a well plotted and twisting suspense story that forms the framework for a thoughtful meditation on how adults (as opposed to adolescents) evolve as friends, even though they change. Read it for either book, and you'll get the other as a bonus.
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6 people found this helpful
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Story
- MND42
- 11-01-20
More to this book than initially meets the eye
The layers in this book are thought provoking ans much appreciated.
What a gift to hear the book read by the author himself.
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Overall
- Stevon
- 05-28-07
Friends
I bought this as a $9.95 daily special. It was an interesting listen but not a thriller that I couoldn't put down. I would rather have listened to the unabridged version, I wasn't even paying attention when I bought it. But, it had a long, winding road kind of plot that eventually got to where it was going.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Michael M. Kraus
- 01-25-21
A new direction for John le Carre.
This book was a surprise to me. I bought it because I’ve found John le Carre’ to be a writer who has always been worth my time.
This book is no exception. The message that Absolute Friends has is especially important given the state of the world today. This work is John’s wake up call to his readers. It says look at what is happening.
The narration is excellent. He wrote it and he reads it wonderfully.
I am going to recommend this book to friends and family.
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2 people found this helpful