The Company

A Novel of the CIA

By: Robert Littell

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 41 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Crisis constantly lurks around the corner, monitored by spies who are always with us. In his career-capping thirteenth novel, master of the espionage thriller Robert Littell has crafted a breathtaking story of the legendary CIA - "The Company" to insiders.

At its heart lies a spectacular mole hunt involving the CIA, MI6, KGB and Mossad - a stunningly conceived trip down the rabbit hole to the labyrinthine Alice-in-Wonderland world of espionage, "a wood where things have no names."

Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the 1950s - the front line of the simmering Cold War - the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, and formidable. It also lays bare the internecine warfare within the company itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game.

©2013 Robert Littell (P)2013 Phoenix Audio

Critic reviews

"If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." (Tom Clancy, author of Patriot Games) "If le Carre is the Joyce of spy novelists, Littell is the Dickens." (Booklist, starred review). "An epic tale...peopled by heroes and villains who seem almost mythological in retrospect...Keeps you riveted." (Nelson DeMille, author of Up Country)
"Destined to become the definitive novel about the CIA." (Amazon.com)

Brilliant, long, and brilliantly long...

What a great book to listen to. I haven't actually seen this book in the bookstore, but I hear it is a doorstopper of a tome; about 900+ pages. But on tape, it was a long and deeply satisfying look into the world of Cold War spooks. I loved it.

I had it on my iPhone and actually made excuses to go walking, driving, working in the yard so that I could grab another episode or chapter. If you like books like this...you will love this book.

BTW, the movie version is a pitiful effort to tell the story. They say that the book is always better than the movie. True enough, but the movie version of the book failed at almost every level. I'm sorry I watched it.

Great book - Odd Endin....

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the book as it progressing through the major events of the 20th Century formation and development of the CIA. The end is more of an ellipse than a period like the world that is described.

ALONZO

This book is definitaly a five star edition; overall performance excellent,narration superb, characters strongly created, plot keeps you enthralled. I think I averaged some six to seven hours a day listening, literally hard to put down. I guess you could say I could not fault this book.
To the author, well done that man

Keeps up the tempo

Though the book is extraordinarily long, the autor and the narrator keep you interested in the plot. At first I was very disapointed believing Robert Littel was making up absurd theories on the international intelligence agencies (e.g. post-war relationship between CIA and the german SS agents) but after talking to history professors I found out that this book was actually very well researched. Well worth the 2 credits.

Wonderfully enthralling insight into spydom.

I'll preface this by saying that I'm rather new to Audible. I'm a "speed reader" and generally prefer hard copy as a consequence. With that said, in any format "The Company" is by all measures a winner. It gives us who live more mundane lives a glimpse into and greater appreciation for the skills and sacrifices those in the spy game must possess and endure. Even more importantly, I can't fathom how I could have enjoyed the hard copy of the book even one-tenth as much due to the excellent reading and vocal dexterity of Scott Brick. His ability to effortlessly and instantaneously change the voice of characters in dialogue with one another, whether male to female, British to Russian, etc., greatly enhanced my enjoyment of it. It made me nostalgic for the pre-television radio days of my youth in which your imagination of the characters and the scene were an integral and necessary part of experiencing the story. I commend this book to anyone interested in the espionage genre or even those who are not but would like to gain a realistic insight into this secret world and the extraordinary people who occupy it.

cannot put this away

I'm in the middle of my 2nd listen to this book. It's even better the 2nd time. If you like a good, riveting spy novel AND really long audio books, this is for you. It goes on and on -- I love that! Scott Brick is not my favorite narrator, but it works for this book.

Gripping

The Company is a book which epitomizes the machinations of the Cold War. The
composite of characters brings the reader to the heart and thinking behind the actions of its major protagonists - both left and right. If one of the causes of the Great War was "secrect alliances, secretly agreed to," it would appear that bad intelligence decisions were secretly conceived without common sense. A gripping tale.

just alright

I've read many books of the same genre and this one was different in that it is much more vast and equally character and event driven. It gave some interesting perspectives on historic events but was just so long and slow paced that I found myself anxious just to finish it so I could pick up a better read next.

Epic

An epic and sweeping story. This is more of an experience to be had than it is a story to be listened to.

Very long but worth it

What did you love best about The Company?

I enjoyed the incite to the inner workings of government agencies. However, I always wonder how much of what I read in this type of book is based on real fact or just the author's imagination.

What other book might you compare The Company to and why?

Have read or listened to other Little books and enjoyed all.

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

No real favorite

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way to listen in one sitting even on a long international flight. It was not too difficult to pick up the thread even after several days'(or weeks') absence from listening