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The extraordinary secret life of a great novelist, which his biographer could not publish while le Carr was alive

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9781800817791

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This book is testament to Sisman's skill and perseverance . With his excellent grasp of the wider history, Sisman is good at anchoring Cornwell in this shadowy environment, as he guides his readers through the models for various characters . Sisman brings admirable clarity to what could have been a meander in a wilderness of mirrors -- Spectator * Spectator *

A completely fascinating and revelatory book, written with great sagacity, candour and judiciousness -- William Boyd, author * Any Human Heart * A fascinating, revelatory appendix ... Sisman's latest book exposes the great spy writer's duplicitous and deceitful relationships with the women in his life, providing new insights into the inner workings of the man who created George Smiley -- 'Best Books of the Year 2023' * Financial Times * Scrupulous as a biographer ... Sisman justifies his argument that this coda of his is a necessary one. It enables us to have a clearer view of the man ... It also allows us to understand his novels better ... Psychologically astute. -- James Owen * Book of the Week, The Times * Complex and consequential ... casts le Carré's life and writing in a fresh light ... a fascinating examination of the biographer's art * Washington Post * Fascinating * New Statesman * Revealing ... shocking * Observer * Fascinating ... painfully honest and anguished -- Robert McCrum * Independent * [Sisman] is a delicate writer keen to acknowledge the ambiguity of the biographer's role * Guardian * Intriguing ... admirably concise ... sub-themes, such as the practice and ethics of biography and the emotional toll of spying, run through [the book] * Spectator * Entertaining * Irish Independent * Thoughtful, self-aware and nuanced .. Sisman here is, as always, readable, honest, careful * Arts Desk * Given his history of spy novels, it should come as little surprise that the late Le Carré was a man adept at secrecy himself. And here his complicated private life is fully exposed for the first time * i News * A determined and at times forensic attempt to set the record straight ... deeply entertaining * Spectator World * Scintillating * Oldie * Remarkably unflinching ... Sisman uncovers a previously hidden and discomfiting dimension of le Carré ... future accounts will have to wrestle with the bombshells dropped here. * Publisher's Weekly * This is a book for le Carré fans, for anyone interested in the art of fiction, and for anyone interested in the art of biography. * Book Brunch * A one-of-a-kind revisiting of a wondrously productive life lived at the expense of two wives and many lovers ... Sisman demonstrates how betrayal was the leitmotif of both the novelist's life and his art and that however completely he depended on his wives, he depended on a new woman to serve as his inspiration for each book * Kirkus Reviews * Few writers have curated their image so effectively as John le Carré. In this page-turning follow-up to his 2015 biography, published when his subject was still kickingly alive, Adam Sisman completes the task of showing us who he was - a minor spy who became a major novelist, whose most important agents in the field were the women he needed to love and then betray. For le Carré, tradecraft was lovecraft. Much more than What Was Left Out, The Secret Life of John le Carré is not merely the conclusive homage to a compulsively fascinating character, but an insightful study into the biographical process itself. Even David Cornwell, the man who actually was John le Carré, would have saluted him -- Nicholas Shakespeare

Author Information

Adam Sisman is the author of Boswell's Presumptuous Task, winner of the US National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, and the biographer of John le Carr, A. J. P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper. Among his other works are two volumes of letters by Patrick Leigh Fermor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews

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