Now an AMC miniseries • The acclaimed novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 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 … 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. Slipping into this maze of peril is Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier who’s currently the night manager of a posh hotel in Zurich. Having learned to hate and fear Roper more than any man on earth, Pine is willing to do whatever it takes to help the agents at Whitehall bring him down—and personal vengeance is only part of the reason why.
Praise for The Night Manager
“A splendidly exciting, finely told story . . . masterly in its conception.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Intrigue of the highest order.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“Richly detailed and rigorously researched . . . Le Carré’s gift for building tension through character has never been better realized.”—People
“Grimly fascinating, often nerve-wracking, and impossible to put down.”—Boston Herald
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I consider myself a John le Carré aficionado, and this is, hands down, my favorite thus far.
We anticipate that his espionage and political threads are strong and tightly drawn. However, what is the true joy of this novel is the emotional depth of le Carré’s hero, Jonathan. Driven by retribution and revenge, we get a man (as opposed to an automaton) with heart and soul as well as the obligatory skills of a spy.
In THE NIGHT MANAGER, le Carre’s prose is poetry, as exemplified when Jonathan, caught in an act of espionage, makes love to the anti-heroine (whom he covets, but thus far has never touched) by telling her: “I’m obsessed by you. I can’t get you out of my head. I don’t mean I’m in love with you. I sleep with you, I wake up with you, I can’t clean my teeth without cleaning yours as well and most of the time I’m quarreling with you. There’s no logic to it, there’s no pleasure to it. I haven’t heard you express a single thought worth a damn, and most of what you say is affected bilge. Yet every time I think of something funny, I need you to laugh at it, and when I’m low it’s you I need to cheer me up. I don’t know who you are, if you’re anyone at all. Or whether you’re here for the beer or because you’re wildly in love with Roper. And I’m sure you don’t know either. I think you’re a total mess. but that doesn’t put me off. Not at all. It makes me indignant, it makes me a fool it makes me want to wring your neck. But that’s just part of the package.”
Trust me, it works. And if you don’t get it, then seriously, you just don’t get le Carré.
This is one of Lecarre’s older books, but fascinating. It left me with a disillusioned feeling about corruption is all government agencies. He is a very pursuasive writer. I love his style
Classic le Carré, The Night Manager is a tour de force, full of spies, criminals, corruption, and action, with the deep characterization that make his books unique. No slam-bang-blood-and-guts thriller, this book follows the story of the manager of a Swiss hotel, an ex-soldier with serious skills, who is recruited by British intelligence to take down an international arms dealer. Excellent.
Great book. Couldn’t put it down.
I enjoyed this book even though I watched the mini-series first. To potential readers who have seen the mini-series, they are different with some of the same elements. Highly recommended.
As always great phrasing. I love Le Carre’s language and his fast paced narrative…
Sympathetic main protagonist with plenty of flaws but as always smart and inventive….here and there maybe a little improbable, but a writer is his own boss, can do these things and we accept…..because we like the hero to come out alive, albeit not unscathed.
Slow read.
An old favorite revisited. Cannot be improved upon.
It was difficult to put down when it was time to go to sleep. I will re-read this one – likely more than once.
Of all the books I have read by le Carrie, this one was disappointing in the allusions and descriptions of the British secret service were a bit obscure, and that the ending came to abruptly after a rather slow read.
LeCarre always delivers.
Le Carre is the master.
Classic La Carre. Another CANT PUT IT DOWN read
Excellent descriptive detail. Fizzled to not much of an ending.
MASTERPIECE
Great book
Great read – complicated plot. Characters have depth and are well developed.
Occasionally difficult to follow.
I liked this book a bit less than others by Le Carre. It seemed a bit jumbled and unclear. I was disappointed.
Elegantly LeCarre.