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Silverview: The Sunday Times Bestseller by [John le Carré]

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John Le Carré

Silverview: The Sunday Times Bestseller Kindle Edition

by John le Carré (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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'Le Carré at his finest' Mick Herron, Guardian

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 after only a couple of months into his new career, Edward, a Polish émigré, shows up at his door with a very keen interest in Julian's new enterprise and a lot of knowledge about his family history. And 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 mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carré asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognise it.

'The finest, wisest storyteller' Richard Osman

'A towering writer' Margaret Atwood

'A literary giant' Stephen King

Print length

216 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

14 Oct. 2021
File size

2101 KB
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Praise for Silverview

"[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It's not that he 'transcended the genre, ' as the tired saying goes; it's that he elevated the level of play... [Silverview's] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated." --The New York Times Book Review

"The plot unfolds with as much cryptic cunning as a reader could want...Enjoyable throughout, written with grace, and a welcome gift from the past."" --The Wall Street Journal

"A thoroughly enjoyable book...a clarion call that slices straight to the bone, and hurts. John le Carré did not just leave the world an engaging novel, he also left us with a warning." --The Washington Post

"This is an intelligent, mournful, wry delight... a suitable end to a storied career, a low-key thriller with a brain and a conscience." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"What a gift to have a posthumous novel by John le Carré, a writer who gave us a world of intricate spycraft, government mendacity and corrupt capitalist overlords that was as unromantic as it was immersive and transporting. Silverview is... an enjoyable coda to a unforgettable career." --Vogue

"John le Carré fans can exhale. Silverview, the master storyteller's twenty-sixth and final novel, has arrived and it's cause for celebration... Silverview is a propulsive and elegantly written tale... a fully formed thriller that provides a stinging look at the British Secret Service operating under crisis. Less labyrinthine than some of le Carré's early work, it has all the grand themes of his best novels -- love and betrayal, loyalty and morality -- fully on display." --AARP

"A well-aimed parting shot." --The New Republic

"A worthy coda...from a much-missed master." --The Economist

"One of [le Carré's] most touching and satisfying [novels] - for putting into high relief this beloved author's vision for his country and his disappointments, and perhaps most of all, the elegance and coloristic palette of his unique and incomparable prose." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Silverview is a fine book centered on the lonely lives of spies and difficult choices they make when experience redefines the parameters of their mission for Queen and country... John Le Carré at the top of his game - smart, candid, stylish, relevant." --Valdosta Daily Times

"First-rate prose and a fascinating plot distinguish the final novel from MWA Grand Master le Carré ... This is a fitting coda to a remarkable career." --Publishers Weekly

Praise for John le Carré

"The premier spy novelist of his time. Perhaps of all time."--Time

"[Le Carré's] novels are so brilliant because they're emotionally and psychologically absolutely true."--The New York Times Book Review

"Le Carré is one of the best novelists--of any kind--we have."--Vanity Fair

"No other writer has charted--pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers--the public and secret histories of his times."--The Guardian (London)

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

JOHN LE CARRÉ was born in 1931. For six decades he wrote novels that came to define our age. He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. At the end of the Cold War, le Carré widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017. Silverview is his twenty-sixth novel. John le Carré died on December 12, 2020.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

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 émigré 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 mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carré asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognise it. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1 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 pushchair 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. 'I'm Proctor. D'you want a hand with that?' he asked, peering into the pushchair. 'How do I know it's you?' Lily demanded in reply. 'Because your revered mother phoned me last night on my private number and urged me to be here.' 'She said alone,' Lily objected, scowling at the matronly woman. 'Marie looks after the house. She's also happy to lend any kind of spare hand if needed,' said Proctor. The matronly woman stepped forward but Lily shrugged her away, and Proctor closed the door after her. In the quiet of the entrance hall she rolled back the plastic cover until the top of the sleeping boy's head was revealed. His hair was black and curly, his expression enviably content. 'He was awake all night,' Lily said, laying a hand on the child's brow. 'Beautiful,' the woman Marie said. Steering the pushchair under the staircase where it was darkest, Lily delved in its underside and extracted a large unmarked white envelope and stood herself before Proctor. His half-smile reminded her of an elderly priest she'd been supposed to confess her sins to at boarding school. She hadn't liked the school and she hadn't like the priest and she didn't intend to like Proctor now. 'I'm supposed to sit here and wait while you read it,' she informed him. 'Of course you are,' Proctor agreed pleasantly, peering crookedly down at her through his spectacles. 'And can I also say, I'm very, very sorry?' 'If you've got a message back, I'm to give it to her by mouth,' she said. 'She doesn't want phone calls, texts or emails. Not from the Service or anyone. Including you.' 'That's all very sad too,' Proctor commented after a moment of sombre reflection, and, as if only now waking to the envelope he was holding in his hand, he poked at it speculatively with his bony fingers: 'Quite an opus, I must say. How many pages, would you think?' 'I don't know.' 'Home stationery?' - still poking - 'Can't be. Nobody has home stationery this size. Just normal typing paper, I suppose.' 'I haven't seen inside. I told you.' 'Of course you did. Well' - with a comic little smile that momentarily disarmed her - 'to work, then. Looks as if I'm in for a long read. Will you excuse me if I withdraw?' In a barren sitting room on the other side of the entrance hall Lily and Marie sat facing each other in lumpy tartan chairs with wooden arms. On a scratched glass table between them lay a tin tray with a Thermos of coffee and chocolate digestive biscuits. Lily had rejected both. 'So how is she?' Marie asked. 'As well as can be expected, thanks. When you're dying.' 'Yes, it's all awful, of course. It always is. But in her spirit, how is she?' 'She's got her marbles, if that's what you mean. Doesn't do morphine, doesn't hold with it. Comes down for supper when she can manage.' 'And still enjoys her food, I hope?' Unable to take more of this, Lily marched to the hall and busied herself with Sam until Proctor appeared. His room was smaller than the first and darker, with grubby net curtains, very thick. Concerned to preserve a respectful distance between them, Proctor positioned himself next to a radiator on the far wall. Lily didn't like the set of his face. You're the oncologist at Ipswich Hospital, and what you're about to say is for close family only. You're going to tell me she's dying, but I know that, so what's left? 'I'm taking it for granted that you know what your mother's letter says,' Proctor began flatly, no longer sounding like the priest she wouldn't confess to, but somebody a lot more real. And seeing her brace herself for denial: 'Its general thrust anyway, if not its actual contents.' 'I told you already,' Lily retorted roughly. 'Not its general thrust or anything else. Mum didn't tell me and I didn't ask.' It's the game we used to play in the dormitory: how long can you stare out the other girl without blinking or smiling? 'All right, Lily, let's look at it another way,' Proctor suggested with infuriating forbearance. 'You don't know what's in the letter. You don't know what it's about. But you've told this or that friend that you were popping up to London to deliver it. So who've you told? Because we really need to know.' 'I have not told one single fucking word to anybody,' Lily said, straight into the expressionless face across the room. 'Mum said don't, so I didn't.' 'Lily.' 'What?' 'I know very little of your personal circumstances. But the little I do know tells me you must have a partner of some sort. What did you say to him? Or if it's a her, to her? You can't simply vanish from your stricken household for a day without offering an excuse of some kind. What more human than to say, quite by the way, to a boyfriend, girlfriend, pal - even to some casual acquaintance - "Guess what? I'm popping up to London to hand-deliver a super-secret letter for my mother"?' 'You're telling me that's human? For us? To talk like that to each other? To a casual acquaintance? What's human is, Mum said she didn't want me to tell a living soul, so I didn't. Plus I'm indoctrinated. By your lot. I'm signed up. Three years ago they held a pistol to my head and told me I was grown up enough to keep a secret. Plus I haven't got a partner, and I haven't got a bunch of girlie friends I bubble to.' The staring game again. 'And I didn't tell my father either, if that's what you're asking,' she added, in a tone that sounded more like a confession. 'Did your mother stipulate that you shouldn't tell him?' Proctor enquired, rather more sharply. 'She didn't say I should, so I didn't. That's us. That's our household. We tiptoe round each other. Maybe your household does the same.' 'So tell me, then, if you will,' Proctor went on, leaving aside what his family did or didn't do. 'Just for interest. What ostensible reason did you give for popping up to London today?' 'You mean what's my cover story?' The gaunt face across the room brightened. 'Yes, I suppose I do,' Proctor conceded, as if cover story were a new concept to him, and a rather jolly one at that. 'We're looking at a nursery school in our area. Near my pad in Bloomsbury. To get Sam on the list for when he's three.' 'Admirable. And will you actually be doing that? Looking at a real school? You and Sam? Meet the staff and so on? Get his name down?' - Proctor the concerned uncle now, and a pretty convincing one. 'Depends how Sam is when I can get him out of here.' 'Do please manage it if you can,' Proctor urged. 'It makes it so much easier when you get back.' 'Easier? What's easier?' - bridling again - 'You mean easier to lie?' 'I mean easier not to lie,' Proctor corrected her earnestly. 'If you say you and Sam are going to visit a school and you visit it, and you then go home and say you've visited it, where's the lie? You're under quite enough strain as it is. I can barely imagine how you put up with it all.' For a discomfiting moment, she knew he meant it. 'So the question remains,' Proctor continued, returning to business, 'what reply should I ask you to take back to your extremely brave mama? Because she's owed one. And must have it.' He paused as if hoping for a little help from her. Receiving none, he went on. 'And, as you said, it can only be by mouth. And you will have to administer it alone. Lily, I'm really sorry. May I begin?' He began anyway. 'Our answer is an immediate yes to everything. So three yesses in all. Her message has been taken to heart. Her concerns will be acted upon. All her conditions will be met in full. Can you remember all that?' 'I can do the little words.' 'And, of course, a very big thank you to her for her courage and loyalty. And for yours too, Lily. Again. I'm so sorry.' 'And my dad? What am I supposed to tell him?' Lily demanded, unappeased. That comic smile, yet again, like a warning light. 'Yes, hm. You can tell him all about the nursery school you're going to visit, can't you? After all, it's why you came up to London today.' * With raindrops spitting up at her from the pavement, Lily kept going as far as Mount Street, where she hailed a cab and ordered the driver to take her to Liverpool Street Station. Maybe sheÕd really meant to visit the school. She no longer knew. Maybe sheÕd announced as much last night, although she doubted it, because by then sheÕd decided she was never again going to explain herself to anyone. Or maybe the idea hadnÕt come to her till Proctor squeezed it out of her. The only thing she knew was: she wasnÕt going to visit any bloody school for ProctorÕs sake. To hell with that, and dying mothers and their secrets, and all of it. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B094Z5YJSY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (14 Oct. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2101 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0593490592

Best Sellers Rank: 1,261 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- 10 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 13 in Action & Adventure Literary Fiction

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About the author

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John Le Carré

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John le Carre was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinke, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. His novels include The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Taileor of Panama, and Single & Single. John le Carre lives in Cornwall.

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The last (and, sadly, somewhat disappointing) completed novel of a master craftsman.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2021

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Rating: 2.4/5

Not far short of a year has elapsed since John Le Carré passed away in December 2020. "Silverview" is billed as the last novel that he completed during his lifetime and its publication has been eagerly anticipated by many people who admired the work of the master craftsman that Le Carré so often showed himself to be. Sadly, this is unlikely to go down as one of his best or most memorable novels, and is actually somewhat disappointing.

There are glimpses of Le Carré at his best with some tantalising wordsmithery and eloquent prose. "Silverview" also contains a number of wonderfully drawn characters with genuine depth and appeal. However, in spite of those elements and despite the fact that this is described as his final completed novel something feels amiss. It isn't simply that the book is unusually short, but there is also the sense that certain sections still feel as though they are "work in progress". The bones of the structure are there, but there is the impression that Le Carré still intended to revisit certain passages and flesh them out more fully.

We will probably never know for sure whether that was actually the case, so perhaps John Le Carré has left his readers with one final mystery and conspiracy theory to ponder over, after all.

49 people found this helpful

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Martin Jones

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2021

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Silverview is John Le Carré’s posthumously published 2021 novel about a City trader who plots an escape to bookshop ownership in a quiet English seaside town. But once installed in his new shop, he inadvertently becomes involved in the affairs of a disenchanted former spy.

Obviously, reviewing a book like this involves not giving away plot details, keeping secrets, as any good agent gathering information is obliged to do. But a review is also designed to let people in on a few secrets so that a potential reader can decide if this is a book for them. Or you might have already read the book and are looking to see what someone else found in it. Tricky - the secrets you keep or give away in this intelligence report.

What I will say is that I enjoyed Silverview. To me it was a study in the contradictions of belief, the meaning that people find in being passionate about something - whether that’s related to religion, politics, nationality or fighting the good fight against extreme manifestations of whatever belief people latch onto. Agents who are passionate about the rightness of their mission are highly motivated. However, that passion remains an unpredictable energy, which can easily express itself in dangerous ways. Here we have the thoughts of a Secret Service staffer, who characterises life in the Service as the avoidance of passion:

“Absolute commitment of any sort constituted to his trained mind a grave security threat. The entire ethic of the Service was utterly – he would almost say absolutely – opposed to it, unless, that is, you were talking of manipulating the absolute commitment of an agent you were running.”

As a final note, with an admitted risk to security, I will share one thought with you, which might help provide a way into the central contradiction of Silverview. Perhaps Le Carré puts his main idea into the form of a little code. It would be a similar code to that found in the name of the lovely character, Liz Gold, in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. In that book it is hard to work out where exactly constitutes the Cold, when one side uses the same ruthless tactics as the other. This confusion might be characterised by Liz Gold’s name - gold sounding so close to cold. Silverview has a character who reminded me of Liz.. She has a “nun like” devotion, representing a capacity for passionate commitment, which has ambivalent outcomes. Her name is only one letter away from ‘mania’. I will leave you to find her and come to your own conclusions.

This book brings the spy story into an age where those national struggles the Service was built to support, have themselves become a threat. It’s a fascinating and timely addition to Le Carré’s collection of work.

29 people found this helpful

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Si

Poor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2021

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Have to say this is a poorly plotted story populated with a combination of thinly drawn characters (Julian and Lily) and the implausible and ridiculous Edward who is supposed to be some sort of super spy but has the most absurd line in dialogue and even more silly tradecraft. There's a kernel of a story about an incoherent British foreign policy, declining empire and illegal wars but it amounts to little more than a few observations. Better off re-reading some of his classic novels than waste time on this.

26 people found this helpful

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P. McCLEAN

As always, a human look at the world of intelligence agencies

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2021

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John Le Carré’s last novel, does not disappoint. It gives the same, practical insight into the British intelligence world his readers will be familiar with from his earlier books. He shows the life of an organisation, not only doing the job it was created to do, but also concerned about how things look and who is going to be the fall-guy if anything goes wrong, and worried about its position vis-à-vis inter-agency rivalry and blame culture.

There is also an appropriateness about the subject matter of the story given the stage in John Le Carré’s writing career it was written. His novels have always reflected the geo-political environment of their time, and his characters have been shown practising their craft, mostly in mid-career. In “A Legacy of Spies” we saw a retrospective of past exploits from the viewpoint of retired service officers. In “Silverview” we are shown what happens in the life of a former agent once retired. “Silvervew” gives us a glimpse at the reality of the-happy-ever-after for an agent once they are no longer of use to the agency.

As always, Le Carré brings human motivation to the surface, and demonstrates the wilful blindness of organisations that can sometimes let errors of judgement slip through to cause cracks in what appears to be a totally watertight operation. He describes a situation where an organisation’s failure to care for its members’ wellbeing, and to take cognizance of an agent’s mental state, can lead to aberrant behaviour, a trait common to many organisations in every sector.

Never one to shy away from highlighting his views on the political leadership of the countries concerned, he describes the internal questioning of an intelligence agency that is serving a country ruled by a government with no coherent foreign policy, a government that is focused on its own internal political power rather than its relationship with the rest of the world.
This is an excellent read.

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Silverview: The Sunday Times Bestseller Kindle Edition

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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John Le Carré

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