'Wonderful' The New York Times

Charlie, a jobbing young English actress, is accustomed to playing different roles. But when the mysterious, battle-scarred Joseph recruits her into the Israeli secret services, she enters the dangerous 'theatre of the real'. As she acts out her part in an intricate, high-stakes plot to trap and kill a Palestinian terrorist, it threatens to consume her.

Set in the tragic arena of the Middle East conflict, this compelling story of love and torn loyalties plays out against the backdrop of an unwinnable war.

'The Little Drummer Girl is about spies as Madame Bovary is about adultery or Crime and Punishment about crime' The New York Times

Print length

656 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Classics
Publication date

27 September 2018
Dimensions

12.9 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

9780241322376
ISBN-13

978-0241322376
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Product description

About the Author

John le Carré was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a confidence trickster, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. At sixteen he found refuge at the university of Bern, then later at Oxford. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5&6). 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. He died on 12 December 2020.

Product details

ASIN : 0241322375
Publisher : Penguin Classics (27 September 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 656 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780241322376
ISBN-13 : 978-0241322376
Item Weight : 420 g
Dimensions : 12.9 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
Generic Name : Book

Best Sellers Rank: #95,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,738 in Thrillers and Suspense

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Paddy

Brilliant

Reviewed in India on 28 July 2020

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As always John le Carre is very professional about the whole plot.his ground level knowledge about the spy business is coming across so clearly and very few spy masters can reach this standard 👍 a very good read 👌

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Chandan Sengupta

The Little Drummer Girl

Reviewed in India on 26 October 2020

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An awful novel. Amazingly boring and meaningless plot. The only good thing about the author is his fancy name. Rubbish book

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Harsh Vinayak

Book you can't close!

Reviewed in India on 29 March 2016

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Started off a bit rough - almost seemed like English was writer's second language. Only later does one realise that it made the scene real - earthy, gritty. Great plot, well developed characters, some acts on the longish side. Overall a book worth reading - not for action junkies but for drama enthusiasts.

One person found this helpful

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Jayesh

Gripping

Reviewed in India on 20 March 2017

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Very vivid description and awesome story. Have read it twice now and am still amazed at the phrases used and the descriptions that come alive as you read the story

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gerardpeter

What a struggle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2018

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I am one of many new readers of this novel, reissued as a modern classic to coincide with a serialization on BBC. Many years ago I read and enjoyed all Le Carre’s Cold War novels. Maybe my tastes have changed but this was such a struggle – I gave up after 250 pages.

The plot is undeniably clever, but even for a spy novel, somewhat far-fetched. To render it convincing Le Carre freights his account with copious detail of person, place and circumstance. This significantly slows down what action there is to a crawl then a standstill – noting the numbers of every car in the queue does not make a traffic jam any more bearable.

The author loads his characters with complex psychologies and back stories. Acts and counteracts must emerge from a tangled forest of lost childhoods, idiopathic personality traits, and misconstrued passages from Regis Debray or Frantz Fanon. He gave his imagination full rein, and drops names merrily but he failed to persuade me of either the truth or necessity of it all. The motivation of Palestine organizations for using violence is rather simple, the response of the Israeli state equally straightforward - whatever your position on the Middle East.

The novel was written in 1983 to be fair – much has changed and much has not indeed. For certain the portrayal of female characters, especially of Charlie, is very much of its time and its male authorship. If women are shallow, men are deep, subtle and complicated. OK but it does not work in 2018 and I am reading it in 2018.

Before abandoning the book – and I persisted for some time – I looked at other negative reviews on Amazon. It was not going to get any better. I will reserve judgement on the TV series.
POSTSCRIPT the TV series was much better, shorter and it dispenses with Le Carre's self-indulgent ramblings. The plot is still implausible but watchable when the book was - in the end - unreadable.

15 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

At What Cost?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2018

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David Cornwell aka John le Carré first gave us this novel back in 1983, and it is still as relevant today as it was then. Here we take in the warring between Israel and Palestine, but it could take in many different theatres of action, and although you can put this in the spy genre of books, to be honest this is much more than that.

With Israeli’s been blown up, who is behind the terrorist actions? Although the Israeli intelligence services have a good idea, it is one thing to know who the person is, and another to locate them and put them out of action. And thus, small-time British actress Charlie makes an appearance. A radical with differing views and quite often on demonstrations what is it about her that seems to make her a good candidate to bring down a terrorist organisation?

Le Carré’s novel is a great read and works on so many levels. There is a good and believable story which is well plotted, and with fully realised characters, but this goes beyond that as we are made to think of certain actions that are carried out. For Kurtz, who is leading this special operation, with the acceptance of deniability by the State of Israel, so we see how Charlie is broken down and then rebuilt to become the person that is wanted for the mission. Kurtz, who is a moderate thinks that by carrying out a successful mission he may be able to hold off certain insurgences against Palestinians, but is he right? Charlie finds herself having to give the performance of a lifetime, but will she stay loyal to her employers, or will she go native and help the Palestinians?

With such questions and others, we have to contemplate the grey world of such activities that have people manipulating and lying to each other, all with their own ideologies, ones that may alter as times progresses, and also the problems that occur trying to bring a peaceable solution to matters that can seem incomprehensibly hard.

In all then this is a great read, that could do well for book groups, and is more of a thinking man’s story than an action thriller. There is a TV series of this I believe coming in November, and as I am writing this I have my fingers crossed that it will be good and do justice to this novel.

14 people found this helpful

Elizabeth Angus

Up to le Carre's usual standard

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 June 2017

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I'm working my way consecutively through le Carre's books, and it's interesting to see his confidence develop.
The Little Drummer Girl moves away from the Cold War and into a new arena: Arab/Israeli terrorism. It's well constructed, and the writing is excellent as always - I didn't realise when I picked up my first le Carre book that there's a literary turn to his spy writing. He actually writes very well indeed.
The Little Drummer Girl doesn't disappoint - my only criticism, and this goes for all his work, is that he only able to write one lead female character. Charlie is every other woman he's written... but at least he writes her well!

23 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A first class story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2018

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Despite having read it I don't know where the title of the book comes from. Maybe I missed something. Having said that it is Le Carre at his best and I cannot fault it. I am left with the impression that the book is heavily researched because it has that ring of truth about it that shouts at you. The build up is careful and thorough without being boring and the end is very well delivered. I can see why a TV or film company would want to make this into a series / film. I suspect it will be just as good as the book. Overall a first class story that I can recommend to anyone.

9 people found this helpful

Timekeeper

Classic Le Carre

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 August 2018

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Slow first half but morphed into an astounding story. I’ve fined it a star due to the unsatisfactory formatting whereby the lack of introducing a new section leads to confusion. TIP: any paragraph that begins without indenting is the beginning of a new ‘chapter’ in the story. Otherwise enjoy!

6 people found this helpful

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