The Pigeon Tunnel The Pigeon Tunnel

The Pigeon Tunnel

Stories from My Life

    • 4.3 • 81 Ratings
    • $7.99
    • $7.99

Publisher Description

DON’T MISS THE PIGEON TUNNEL DOCUMENTARY—NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS AND STREAMING ON AppleTV+

The New York Times bestselling memoir from John le Carré, the legendary author of A Legacy of Spies.

“Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur—by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy.”
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire or the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth; visiting Rwanda’s museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide; celebrating New Year’s Eve 1982 with Yasser Arafat and his high command; interviewing a German woman terrorist in her desert prison in the Negev; listening to the wisdoms of the great physicist, dissident, and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov; meeting with two former heads of the KGB; watching Alec Guinness prepare for his role as George Smiley in the legendary BBC TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People; or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in The Constant Gardener, le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.

Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer’s journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2016
September 6
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
320
Pages
PUBLISHER
Penguin Publishing Group
SELLER
PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
SIZE
1.4
MB

Customer Reviews

New To True Crime in Virginia ,

Forgiven for the misremembering or forgetting

It was funny when he comes to a place where to share would be to reveal he can’t remember a thing. It happens many times throughout the book but all’s forgiving for the laughs. Still quite angry at his father, as it’s unmistakable by his voice, one can understand why. What fun. I’m ‘new’ to all this so am beginning at the beginning knowing it’ll take a spell to read/listen and a tad bit of my savings as well, but can’t wait. Simply can’t wait. What a gift he’s bestowed on us as a man most wanted fulfilling his loan.

More Books Like This

A Child of the Century A Child of the Century
2020
Dear Me Dear Me
2011
Killing My Own Snakes Killing My Own Snakes
2008
Life Stories Life Stories
2000
Quintana & Friends Quintana & Friends
2013
We Danced On Our Desks We Danced On Our Desks
2022

More Books by John le Carré

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
2011
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
2012
A Legacy of Spies A Legacy of Spies
2017
A Spy Among Friends A Spy Among Friends
2014
Our Kind of Traitor Our Kind of Traitor
2010
Call for the Dead Call for the Dead
2012

Customers Also Bought

The Secret Life of John le Carre The Secret Life of John le Carre
2023
The Confidential Agent The Confidential Agent
2018
The Last Voice You Hear The Last Voice You Hear
2009
Smoke and Whispers Smoke and Whispers
2009
The Unfortunate Englishman The Unfortunate Englishman
2016
Big Salads Big Salads
2018