The Little Drummer Girl

A Novel

By: John le Carré

Narrated by: Michael Jayston

Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

You want to catch the lion, first you tether the goat.

On holiday in Mykonos, Charlie wants only sunny days and a brief escape from England's bourgeois dreariness. Then a handsome stranger lures the aspiring actress away from her pals - but his intentions are far from romantic. Joseph is an Israeli intelligence officer, and Charlie has been wooed to flush out the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for a string of deadly bombings. Still uncertain of her own allegiances, she debuts in the role of a lifetime as a double agent in the "theatre of the real".

Haunting and deeply atmospheric, John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl is a virtuoso performance and a powerful examination of morality and justice.

©2001 John Le Carre (P)2012 Penguin

Great book and performance!

Little Drummer Girl is my favorite le Carre novel which has a great blend of suspense, realistic political dilemmas and romantic love.

Best narrator I've ever heard on audio

Michael Jayston narrated this book better than any I've heard on audible thus far. I've read about 50 audible books. He was smooth and flowing perfection. The book is brilliant and far better than the film adaptation. This is the first of John Le Carré's that I've read and it was extraordinary. I'm a new, lifelong fan.

One of my all-time favorites!

I love this story! Intricate plot, excellent character development, realistic emotional conflict surrounding difficult situation.

delicious complexity

The complexity of the story is exquisite. it illustrates an intricate weave of lies and espionage, mixed with love and obsession.

Boring and predictable

I would not recommend has a singular point of view in addition to being painfully slow to get to the elements of the story.
Perhaps the Amazon mini series is more thrilling.

excellent

Le Carre is a genius with this book. His best book in a group of genius books---although the dull beginning of the book might have been added later in the book.

Ashtonishing

This book is just a piece of art. Probably his best work. Starts off a little slow and is confusing in the beginning. Stick with it.

More than a spy novel

For my money this is the best of the post-Smiley books. It is not only sophisticated in its understanding of the moral ambiguities and contradictions of the ongoing -- no end in sight -- conflict in the Middle East, it is a compelling psychological study of a young woman on the fringes of left-wing politics who is drawn -- more accurately kidnapped -- into a plot to thwart a terrorist bombing. Charlie is a theater actress of only modest success, which is to say she makes a living but only barely. She is the quintessential anti-heroine of the story. Sexually promiscuous and co-dependent, an abused girlfriend (of the cretinous "Long Al," a fellow actor), drawn to but also repelled by the brutal logic of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and finally an accidental if not unwilling savior of innocent lives. This is also a love story, counterposing Charlie and "Joseph," a Mossad operative who despite his legendary status as the coolest, toughest spy among the best of both types, is fraught with existential doubt about the consequences of meeting violence with more violence. Le Carre's prose is, as always, superlative. Little Drummer Girl stands up to anything ever written in this genre, including Graham Greene at the top of his game. Michael Jayston's narration is a perfect match for Le Carre's prose.

Great writer, great reader, great story

This is one often very best LeCarre books, read bygone of the very best readers.

Amazing

What an amazing book. No one writes like this. No one has this ultimate perspective. It takes an insider to be able to construct such a twist