A Perfect Spy
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First published in 1986, John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy is an intricate and deeply personal novel about deception, identity and the inheritance of betrayal. Magnus Pym, a senior British intelligence officer, disappears following his father's funeral, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions for the intelligence services, his wife Mary and his former mentor, Jack Brotherhood. In hiding on the Devon coast, Pym begins writing an account of his life for his young son, tracing the making of a man whose earliest lessons in duplicity came from his father, Rick, a charming and incorrigible confidence trickster. Moving between childhood memories, diplomatic life in Vienna and the shadowy world of international espionage, the novel gradually reveals the complicated loyalties that have shaped him.
Often described by le Carré as his most autobiographical work, A Perfect Spy draws upon the author's own complicated relationship with his father to create an extraordinary portrait of emotional manipulation and the elusive nature of selfhood. More than a conventional espionage thriller, it is a psychological novel of considerable scope, examining the roles we inherit, the identities we construct and the impossibility of separating love from betrayal. Widely regarded as one of le Carré’s finest achievements, it combines the intricate plotting of his spy fiction with the psychological depth and narrative richness of the great English novel.
From the book
“Vienna was a divided city like Berlin or your father.”
— John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
On A Perfect Spy
“One of the finest English novels of the twentieth century.”
— Philip Pullman