The Tailor of Panama Audiobook By John le Carré cover art

The Tailor of Panama

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Tailor of Panama

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: John le Carré
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.13

Buy for $18.13

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

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.

Seldom has the weight of politics descended so heavily on such a tiny and unprepared nation. And seldom has the hidden eye of the British Intelligence selected such an unlikely champion as Harry Pendel - a charmer, a dreamer, an evader, a fabulist and presiding genius to the house of Pendel & Braithwaite Co. Limitada, Tailors to Royalty, formerly of London and presently of Panama City.

Yet there is a logic to the spies' choice, for everybody who is anybody in Cental America passes through Pendel's doors. He dresses politicos and crooks and conmen. His fitting room hears more confidences than the priest's confessional. And when Harry Pendel doesn't hear things as such - well, he hears them anyway, by other means.

In a thrilling, hilarious AudioBook, le Carre once again effortlessly expands the borders of the spy story to bring us a magnificent entertainment straight out of the pages of tomorrow's history.

©2012 John LeCarre (P)2012 Random House Audio Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Exciting Witty Fiction Suspense Mystery

Critic reviews

"Le Carre remains far in front in his field, a startlingly up-to-date storyteller who writes as well about the shadows around the power elite as anyone alive."( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
This book is fantastic- to hear it read by the author makes this listen sublime.

Read by the author- such a wonderful book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I got this abridged version as it was narrated by Le Carre. I liked the story as I am interested in spy novels, and I have read Le Carre in the past. The narration was difficult in parts as Le Carre spoke softly for Harry Pendel, and I had to turn up the volume to get it. Also it is difficult for a man to do a female voice and a spanish accent even more difficult, so the female parts were lost a bit in the narration.
If you are looking for a short spy caper then this would be a good one.

A Good Spy Tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you try another book from John le Carré and/or John le Carré?

Yes.

Would you recommend The Tailor of Panama to your friends? Why or why not?

No. The book gets off to a great start but then the plot gets muddled. Seems as if le Carré lost interest. Read the original by Graham Greene.

How could the performance have been better?

Get an actor to read the book. Le Carré cannot imitate an American accent! Or a woman's voice. This reading was just terrible.

Not one of Le Carré's best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I did not enjoy this book. The narrator changed the volume of his voice too much, meaning at normal volume other voices were an inaudible whisper, and when turned up to hear the whispers, normal voices were painfully loud. The story I found to be boring, and when the book was over, I wondered to some extent what it was about.

Did not enjoy this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.